YouTube revives sort by oldest video button on user channels

Wish you could travel back in time and see how your favorite YouTubers looked like and what content they were putting out when they first started? You used to be able to with the click of a button, until YouTube removed the option.

Well, now that button is back again.

YouTube has just rolled out a new (or old?) sorting option on YouTube channels which lets users sort by "Oldest" videos, surfacing the earliest uploads to the top of the page. Android Police first noticed the change and Mashable has since confirmed the option on numerous YouTube channels of varying popularity. The "Oldest" option appears under the "Videos" tab and is the third choice after the sorting by "Latest" and "Popular" options.

It's back! Credit: Mashable Screenshot

According to comments from YouTube users over the years, the "Oldest" sort option would disappear intermittently over the years before being seemingly removed for good last year. As Android Police points out, YouTube at times attributed the removal to a temporary bug.

But then, in an official YouTube video from April 2022, the company confirmed it intentionally removed the option to sort videos by "Oldest." Instead YouTube recommended users just scroll through a channel's entire video feed. And, sure, users can just scroll through the list of videos on a channel, but if their favorite creator is a prolific uploader…that can take a while. Now users don't have to scroll endlessly anymore.

YouTube has been around for more than 18 years, which means there's nearly-two-decade-old videos on the platform. The "Oldest" option can help users find throwback content from those creators who've been around for a while.