YouTube experienced a widespread outage on Feb 17–18, 2026, heavily affecting users in the United States and around the world. Downdetector and similar trackers logged hundreds of thousands of problem reports from users trying to use YouTube services.
Users saw errors such as “Something went wrong” and were unable to access videos, home recommendations, or portions of the platform.
The outage hit YouTube’s main website and mobile app, as well as YouTube Music, YouTube Kids, and YouTube TV.
How widespread it was?
In the United States, more than 320,000 user reports were made at the peak of the outage via services like Downdetector. Other regions including India, the UK, Australia, Mexico, and others also saw reports of disruptions.
Complaints covered things like videos failing to load, blank homepages, login issues, and failures on YouTube TV.
Why it happened
According to official updates from YouTube/Google, the core issue was with the recommendations system, which prevented videos and recommendations from appearing correctly across the platform.
Resolution status
- YouTube confirmed the issue has been resolved and services are returning to normal.
- In updates shared on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), YouTube said the homepage functionality was restored, though teams were still ensuring a full fix.
User experience highlights
Many users noticed that direct video links or subscription feeds still worked, even if the homepage/recommendations were down. Social media was filled with reports, memes, and confirmation that the outage was not isolated to one region.
In short: YouTube was hit by a major global outage that affected hundreds of thousands of users primarily by disrupting video loading and recommendations. The company has since fixed the underlying issue and restored service.
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