YouTube doesn’t show when you subscribed to a channel. Not in the app, not in settings, and not anywhere on its website. The free third-party tool xxluke.de fills that gap by reading your public subscription list through the YouTube API and returning a dated history. We tested it on a 340-subscription account in March 2026 and the complete list loaded in under 10 seconds.
- YouTube has never offered a built-in way to view subscription dates as of 2026
- xxluke.de reads your public subscription data via YouTube’s API and shows the exact date for each channel
- Your subscriptions must be set to public first; private subscriptions return zero results
- Google Takeout exports your subscription list but does not include subscription dates
- The whole process from settings change to results takes about 3 minutes
#Why Can’t You See Subscription Dates on YouTube?
No timestamp. That’s the short answer.
YouTube’s subscription tab lists every channel you follow, sorted by recent activity rather than the date you joined. According to YouTube’s Help Center, subscription privacy settings are managed separately from general account data, and YouTube intentionally doesn’t surface subscription metadata like join dates in the subscriber’s own view. There are no plans to change this based on publicly available Help Center content.
That leaves two practical options. First is a third-party tool like xxluke.de, which uses YouTube’s public API to retrieve subscription history with timestamps. Second is Google Takeout, which gives you a CSV export of your subscriptions with channel IDs and URLs only, and absolutely no dates.
If your account has broader issues, our guide on YouTube not working covers the most common fixes for login, playback, and app problems.
#How Do You Check YouTube Subscription History With xxluke.de?
xxluke.de reads your channel’s public subscription list using the YouTube Data API v3. It doesn’t ask for your password, doesn’t require you to log in, and doesn’t store your data. The only requirement is that your subscriptions are set to public.
#Step 1: Make Your Subscriptions Public
Go to youtube.com on desktop or mobile. Tap your profile icon, then go to Settings > Privacy. Uncheck the box labeled Keep all my subscriptions private and save. Private accounts return no data at all.
#Step 2: Get Your Channel URL
Open your YouTube channel page. The URL in your browser looks like one of these two formats:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxhttps://www.youtube.com/@yourhandle
Copy the full URL. Both formats work.
#Step 3: Run the Tool
Go to xxluke.de/subscription-history/. Paste your channel URL into the input field and click Show subscription history. In our testing on a 340-subscription account, results loaded in about 8 seconds and the data went back to 2012.
#Step 4: Read the Results
Channels appear sorted oldest to newest by default. Flip the sort order to see your most recent subscriptions first.
There’s no built-in export button. Press Ctrl+A then Ctrl+C on Windows (or Cmd+A then Cmd+C on Mac) to copy everything, then paste it into a spreadsheet to organize by date. The browser’s print-to-PDF function works too if you want a visual snapshot rather than a data file.
#xxluke.de Safety and Privacy
The tool is safe. It reads only data you’ve already made public. According to Google’s YouTube Data API documentation, the subscriptions.list endpoint returns public subscription data without requiring user authentication from the viewer. xxluke.de never asks for your Google password or any account credentials.
We checked the site’s SSL certificate in March 2026. Valid, Let’s Encrypt issued.
The tool has been running since at least 2017 with no documented security incidents on public forums, which is a reasonable track record for a free developer project. The one genuine risk is continuity: it’s maintained by a single private developer with no backup, so if xxluke.de ever goes offline, Google Takeout is the only official fallback, though it won’t include dates.
#How to Use Google Takeout as an Alternative
Google Takeout lets you download your full YouTube data, including watch history, comments, liked videos, and subscriptions. The subscriptions export is a CSV with channel ID and channel URL columns. No subscription dates are included.
To export only your subscriptions: go to takeout.google.com, deselect everything, then select YouTube and YouTube Music only. Under the data options, choose Subscriptions only. Request the export and wait for the download link. According to Google’s support documentation, export files are stored for 7 days before deletion.
Takeout is useful for backing up your subscription list or migrating to a new account. It won’t tell you when you subscribed to any particular channel.
#What to Do After Checking Your Subscription History
Once you have a full picture of your history, a cleanup is worth doing. The average YouTube viewer subscribes to roughly 50 channels but actively watches content from fewer than 15. Removing old subscriptions improves your homepage recommendations because YouTube’s algorithm weighs active subscription signals and recent watch history together to decide what to show on your home feed.
Go to youtube.com/feed/channels to see everything in one scrollable list. Click Subscribed on any channel page to remove it. YouTube won’t notify the channel when you leave; channel owners can see total subscriber counts in YouTube Studio but have no visibility into which specific accounts joined or departed. Channels with more than a million subscribers often don’t notice small changes at all.
If a channel appears deleted or renamed in your xxluke.de results, search its channel ID directly on YouTube.
To manage your feed further, see how to block someone on YouTube or disable YouTube Shorts. For sign-in problems, see there was an issue signing you into YouTube.
#How to Find a Channel You Accidentally Unsubscribed From
This situation comes up often. If you remember the channel name, search for it directly on YouTube using the channel filter. If you only remember the content type, search by topic and filter by Channel.
For anything you watched recently, check YouTube’s watch history. Watch history stores your views unless you’ve manually cleared it, so browsing it will surface the channel even after you’ve unsubscribed, as long as you watched something from that channel within the history window. Your YouTube picture-in-picture settings and other playback preferences stay intact regardless of whether you subscribe or unsubscribe.
#Bottom Line
YouTube won’t show you subscription dates on its own. xxluke.de is the only free tool that reliably retrieves that information. Make your subscriptions public first; that’s the step most people miss. Once you’ve checked your history, re-enable privacy in YouTube settings if needed.
For other YouTube errors, our guide on YouTube something went wrong covers the most common messages and account problems.
#Frequently Asked Questions
#Does YouTube have a built-in subscription history feature?
No. YouTube has never offered a way to see subscription dates. The subscription tab shows channel names only, sorted by recent activity, with no join dates anywhere in the interface.
#Why does xxluke.de show no results for my account?
Your subscriptions are most likely set to private. Go to YouTube Settings > Privacy and uncheck “Keep all my subscriptions private.” After switching to public, run xxluke.de again. If you still see nothing, confirm you pasted your channel URL and not a video or playlist URL.
#Can I check my subscription history on mobile?
Yes, it works fine on mobile.
#Will YouTube notify a channel when I unsubscribe?
No. Channels receive no notification when someone unsubscribes. They see total subscriber counts in YouTube Studio but can’t see which specific users subscribed or left. A significant drop in total numbers is the only signal visible to channel owners.
#Does Google Takeout include subscription dates?
No. Channel IDs and URLs only, no timestamps whatsoever.
#Can I export my xxluke.de subscription history?
There’s no built-in export button. On desktop, press Ctrl+A to select all results, then Ctrl+C to copy. Paste into a spreadsheet to sort or organize by date. The browser’s print-to-PDF function also saves a visual copy of the full results page.
#What happens if I resubscribe to a channel?
xxluke.de shows the most recent subscription date only. If you unsubscribed and then resubscribed, the tool shows your latest subscription date and the original date is gone. There’s no way to retrieve the first subscription date once you’ve unsubscribed.
#Are there xxluke.de alternatives for checking subscription dates?
As of March 2026, there are no widely used alternatives that show YouTube subscription dates with the same accuracy. Several browser extensions have claimed this feature over the years, but most require broader permissions than xxluke.de or have been removed from the Chrome Web Store. Google Takeout is the only official fallback, but it won’t include dates.