YouTube outage cause revealed: Heres what we know

YouTube went down globally on Tuesday, Feb. 17. Here's what caused the widespread outage. Home > Tech YouTube outage cause revealed: Here's what we know Users across the globe reported problems with the video platform on Tuesday. By Amanda Yeo Amanda Yeo Assistant Editor Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good. Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets. Read Full Bio on February 17, 2026 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Flipboard Credit: Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images YouTube suffered a global outage on Tuesday, with thousands of people reporting issues with the platform from around 8:00 p.m. ET. Now, we know what caused it.In a statement posted to the official TeamYouTube X account, the company revealed that the outage was caused by a problem with the recommendations system. This algorithmic system is responsible for offering you videos it thinks you'll want to watch based on your past viewing habits. The company provided additional details on a Google support page."Update: An issue with our recommendations system prevented videos from appearing across surfaces on YouTube (including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music and YouTube Kids)," the company explained. "The homepage is back, but we're still working on a full fix — more coming soon!" You May Also Like This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. It provided a further update within the hour: "We're also seeing a small number of reports that some people are unable to login to YouTube TV. This is related to the broader issue across YouTube, and we're also working on a fix here." Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. Loading... Sign Me Up Use this instead By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Finally, around 10:15 p.m. ET, the company shared a "final update," which stated: "The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved and all of our platforms (YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV) are back to normal! We really appreciate you bearing with us while we sorted this out."Crowdsourced outage tracker Downdetector saw a spike in activity for YouTube on Tuesday evening, with the platform receiving more than 1.6 million user error reports in the last 24 hours. (Disclosure: Mashable and Downdetector share the same parent company, Ziff Davis.) Approximately half of these reports came from the U.S., with users encountering issues with the video-sharing platform's app and website, though people across the globe were impacted.Mashable was unable to use YouTube in Australia, with attempts to access the website resulting in a blank screen showing only YouTube's sidebar and search bar. Related Stories YouTube is down. Here's what we know. Credit: Amanda Yeo / Mashable The internet has seen several high-profile outages in recent months, affecting companies such as Verizon, Microsoft 365, and TikTok. In some ways, maybe this latest outage is a sign that we should all go outside and touch some grass. SEE ALSO: Why does the internet keep crashing so much lately? UPDATE: Feb. 17, 2026, 10:26 p.m. EST This article has been updated with additional statements from YouTube/Google. Topics YouTube Amanda Yeo Assistant Editor Amanda Yeo is an Assistant Editor at Mashable, covering entertainment, culture, tech, science, and social good. Based in Australia, she writes about everything from video games and K-pop to movies and gadgets.