Getting to Your YouTube Comments via Browser — It’s Not as Smooth as It Seems
Honestly, trying to find specific comments on YouTube can be kinda frustrating, especially if you don’t know where to look or if the site’s interface seems to hide things just when you need them. I’ve been there—searching through endless comment threads, hoping to stumble on that one sentence, and it feels like you’re chasing shadows. If you’re on Windows 11 or Mac, the options boil down to a bit of digging around in Google’s activity logs and using browser tricks. Not perfect, but hey, it works — eventually.
First off, YouTube doesn’t have a built-in search function for comments directly on the site. So, your best bet is to use Google’s “My Activity” tool, which logs pretty much everything you do across their platforms—including comments. To access this, open your browser and head over to https://myactivity.google.com. Make sure you’re signed in with the same Google account linked to your YouTube account because that’s how it pulls up your comment history.
On my older ASUS, I found the “Manage all history” link underneath “Activity controls” a bit tucked away—it wasn’t immediately obvious. Sometimes it’s buried in the “Library” or “History” section of the YouTube menu (via the hamburger icon in the top corner). Once you’re there, clicking “Manage activity,” or going directly to the URL, gives you way more visibility into what you’ve interacted with. Here, under “Filters,” you can select “Comments” specifically, which makes hunting down that particular comment way easier. It logs all your YouTube comments, so you can scroll through or search by keyword, date, or channel.
Once you find your comment in Google’s activity log, you can see the exact context, and if needed, go back to YouTube to edit or delete the comment. Sometimes, the edit option is a bit tricky—some comments might only be editable within YouTube itself, not directly from Google’s history page. Just a heads-up: clearing or deleting comments might also remove associated data like your notifications or engagement metrics, so be cautious.
If you’re just trying to track down a comment to review it on YouTube, another nifty trick is using your browser’s built-in search feature. On Windows, that’s Ctrl + F. On Mac, it’s Command + F. It’s not perfect, especially if the comments section has hundreds of entries or if comments are collapsed or hidden behind “Show more” links, but it does save some scrolling. Type in a snippet of the comment you remember, and the search highlights it—helps avoid scrolling for ages.
Honestly, this approach isn’t exactly elegant, but it’s probably the most reliable I found without resorting to third-party tools or scripts. Keep in mind, sometimes comments get held in moderation or caught in spam filters. If your comment was recent or you know roughly what was said, searching with keywords really helps. If it’s an older comment, the Google activity log might be the only way to track it down—especially if it’s no longer visible on the video page due to moderation or removal.
In my experience, cross-referencing the comment in Google My Activity and using your browser’s search function on the YouTube page makes the process manageable—though still a bit clunky. It’s a weird workaround, considering YouTube could easily have a built-in search filter for comments, but alas, no. Anyway, these steps are about as smooth as it gets right now.
So, just a quick recap: Check your Google activity for comment history, then search keywords on the video page. Double-check that you’re signed into the right account, keep in mind that some comments might be missing if they’re moderated or deleted, and use Ctrl + F or Command + F to find specific phrases fast. It’s not perfect, but it gets the job done once you figure out where everything is hiding. Hope this helped — it took me way too long to figure out this little workaround. Anyway, hope this saves someone else a weekend.