YouTube Returns to Operation After Sudden Outage Affects Millions
On Tuesday evening, February 17, 2026, the YouTube platform experienced a sudden outage that affected over 240,000 users in the United States, according to the outage tracking site Down Detector.
The site reported 240,707 complaints about issues with the platform by 7:59 PM Eastern Time, with users noticing that the homepage displayed a very limited number of videos (between 3 and 8 only), relying more on Shorts, Playlists, and Playables, rather than the usual long videos.
In an official statement via YouTube's account on X, the platform confirmed that the cause was a glitch in the recommendation system, which prevented videos from appearing across all YouTube interfaces, including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids.
The company stated in its tweet:
"Our recommendation system encountered an issue that prevented videos from appearing across all YouTube interfaces, including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids. The homepage is back now, but we are still working on a full fix... more is coming soon!".
Moments later, YouTube announced that the issue had been fully resolved and all services had returned to normal, thanking users for their reports and patience during the repair process.
This outage sparked widespread debate among users, with some criticizing the cessation of long videos and the system's reliance on short content, reflecting how millions of users depend on YouTube as a primary source for daily viewing and entertainment.
