YouTube working now? Here’s what caused the outage

Google-owned video platform, YouTube, experienced a widespread outage that left users across multiple countries unable to access content. Reports surged globally before services gradually began stabilising. Here is what happened and what the company has said so far.

YouTube outage disrupts homepage and recommendations

The disruption began gathering momentum on February 17 in the United States, with Downdetector logging hundreds of thousands of complaints within minutes. At its peak, global reports crossed the million mark, spanning the US, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany and India. Many users encountered a blank homepage or a “Something went wrong” error message across the app and web versions. YouTube TV also saw thousands of complaints.

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According to an official update shared by YouTube, the issue stemmed from a problem in its recommendations system. This glitch prevented videos from appearing across key surfaces, including the homepage, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids and YouTube TV.

YouTube’s official X handle has confirmed that the homepage has been restored while teams continue working on a complete fix. Some users also reported login difficulties linked to the broader issue.

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In India, Downdetector data showed a spike between 6:10 am and 8:10 am IST, with nearly 20,000 complaints during that window. Around 74 percent of reports were related to the mobile app, while others flagged streaming and login problems. Social media platforms were flooded with screenshots showing empty feeds and persistent error prompts.

Services restored

At the time of writing this post around 9:30 am IST, YouTube appears to be functioning normally across web browsers, mobile apps and connected TV platforms in India. Downdetector numbers have dropped sharply compared to the early morning spike.

While YouTube has acknowledged the disruption and attributed it to its internal recommendation systems, it has not shared detailed technical reasons behind the failure. The episode highlights how heavily the platform relies on algorithm-driven feeds, where even a backend glitch can temporarily silence one of the world’s largest video networks.

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