How to Reset or Fix Your Pinterest Home Feed

Pinterest doesn’t have a single button that resets your home feed. What it has is a handful of controls that each nudge it: “See fewer like this” on individual pins, the Refine your recommendations page, unfollowing boards and accounts, and the privacy settings that decide what Pinterest learns about you. Used together over a few days, they can pull a feed back on track. Ads are the one thing none of them switch off.

Here’s what each control does, in the order we’d try them.

Why does a Pinterest feed go wrong?

Your home feed is built from what you’ve saved, clicked, searched and followed, plus what Pinterest guesses you’ll like. A few things push it off course:

• One-off searches. Plan one party or buy one gift, and Pinterest can keep showing that topic for weeks.
• Old follows. Boards and accounts you followed years ago still feed pins in.
• Activity outside Pinterest. Pinterest can use information from sites you visit to shape recommendations, not only ads, as its personalization help page explains.
• AI images. Generated images are common in topics like art, beauty and home decor, which is why Pinterest added controls for them by topic.

1. Tell Pinterest what you don’t want, pin by pin

This is the most direct signal you can send. On any pin in your home feed:

1. Click or tap the … (ellipsis) at the bottom right of the pin.
2. Choose See fewer like this. Some versions of the app say See less.

The same menu tells you why Pinterest recommended that pin, which is useful: if the answer is a board you follow, unfollowing the board fixes the cause instead of one pin. Pinterest documents this in hide a Pin on your home feed.

It works best when you’re consistent: a handful of pins on the same unwanted topic sends a clearer signal than one.

2. Use Refine your recommendations

This is the closest thing Pinterest has to a feed settings page. According to Pinterest’s tune your home feed article, it currently has two tabs:

• Activity stops recommendations based on pins you’ve engaged with or viewed. Turning it off is the nearest thing to a fresh start.
• AI content lets you turn generative AI images down, overall or by topic. We cover it in detail in what the See fewer AI pins setting really does.

On a computer: click the more-options icon at the bottom left, then Refine your recommendations.

In the app: tap your profile picture at the bottom right, tap the more-options icon at the top right, then Refine your recommendations.

Older guides mention separate on/off switches for boards, topics and followed accounts. Those came from Pinterest’s 2019 “home feed tuner”. Pinterest’s current help pages don’t describe them, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find them.

3. Unfollow what you’ve outgrown

Open the list of accounts and boards you follow from your profile and unfollow anything you no longer care about. Since followed boards and accounts feed pins straight into your home feed, this often does more than any setting.

4. Clear your recent searches

Pinterest lets you clear recent searches:

• On a computer: click the search bar and use the clear option next to Recent searches.
• In the app: tap the search icon, tap the search bar, then the clear icon next to each search.

Pinterest doesn’t say whether this changes recommendations, so treat it as tidying up rather than a reset.

5. Check your privacy and data settings

Under Settings → Privacy and data (Pinterest’s guide) you’ll find switches like Use info from sites you visit and Use of partner info. Turning them off limits what Pinterest uses from outside Pinterest. In the EU there’s also Inferred signals about you, which controls whether past clicks, demographics and search history personalize your ideas.

6. Don’t forget the board you’re saving to

Pinterest learns from what you save. If you saved a lot of one thing in a burst, archive or tidy that board. It won’t erase history, but it stops the board from looking like your main interest.

What none of these settings change

Every control above shapes the pins Pinterest recommends. None of them removes ads. Pinterest says plainly on its ads help page: “While you can’t turn off ads completely, you can limit the kinds of information we use to pick which ads you see.” Shopping pins and suggestion blocks like “Shop the look” aren’t covered by these settings either.

That’s the part Feed Cleaner handles on a computer. It removes promoted pins, shopping pins and suggestion blocks before they show up, so a feed you’ve tuned stays about the pins you actually want. It’s free, with no account. For the rest, see how to stop seeing ads on Pinterest.

FAQ

Can I delete my Pinterest history and start over?

There’s no “delete history” button for recommendations. Turning off Activity under Refine your recommendations is the closest option. Creating a new account is the only true blank slate.

How long does it take for the feed to change?

Pinterest doesn’t give a timeline. Pin-by-pin feedback is the most direct signal you can send, so start there and give the feed a few days.

Will this stop AI pins?

It reduces them. The AI content tab turns generative AI images down by topic, but pins without a label or in other topics still get through. Our guide on how to get rid of AI on Pinterest covers the options.