TikTok outage triggers “is TikTok down right now?” surge in the US as users report comments not loading and feeds glitching

TikTok users across the United States reported widespread problems beginning early Sunday, January 25, 2026 (ET), with disruptions spilling into Monday and lingering for some into Tuesday, January 27 (ET). The most common complaints: the app not loading properly, comments failing to appear, login problems, uploads getting stuck, and the “For You” feed behaving strangely.

TikTok’s U.S. operation attributed the disruption to a power outage at a U.S. data center, framing the incident as a service-stability issue rather than a policy or moderation change. Even so, the timing—during a high-attention period for the company’s U.S. operations—made the outage feel bigger than a typical technical hiccup.

What happened: TikTok not working, comments not loading, and feeds acting “off”

Reports clustered around a few consistent failure modes:

• Comments not loading or taking an unusually long time to appear

• For You feed glitches, including repetitive or older content and weaker personalization

• Upload and posting problems, with some videos appearing stuck before going live

• Login and account access issues, including session errors and slower profile loading

• General slowness, timeouts, or spinning load screens

The disruption appeared to spike in the early-morning hours Sunday (ET), then eased for many users later—while continuing intermittently for others. That pattern is typical when core systems begin recovering but edge systems (regional routing, caching layers, and account services) stabilize unevenly.

TikTok’s explanation: a power outage at a U.S. data center

On Monday morning, January 26 (ET), TikTok’s U.S. operation said it had been working to restore services following a power outage at a U.S. data center affecting TikTok and other apps it operates. The message emphasized coordination with a data center partner to stabilize service and acknowledged ongoing disruption for some users.

A power event can cause more than “the app is down.” It can disrupt the underlying systems that coordinate personalization, comment retrieval, and publishing workflows—creating the exact mix of symptoms users described: feeds that feel “wrong,” comments missing, and posting stuck in limbo.

Behind the headline: why this outage hit harder than usual

A major platform outage is always frustrating, but this one landed at a particularly sensitive moment for TikTok in the U.S., where operational continuity and trust are under heightened scrutiny. That context doesn’t prove anything about the cause—but it changes the impact.

Here’s what’s driving the bigger reaction:

• Incentives: TikTok needs reliability to protect daily usage habits. Even a few hours of instability can break routines and push creators and viewers to competing platforms.

• Stakeholders: creators lose momentum and income opportunities; advertisers worry about delivery and measurement; TikTok’s partners face increased scrutiny over resilience and failover planning.

• Reputation risk: outages feed narratives—fair or not—about fragility, governance, and whether the platform can operate smoothly under pressure.

• Second-order effects: creators may delay posting, repost content elsewhere, or change schedules; brands may diversify spend; trust in recommendations can dip if the feed feels less personal for days.

The key point: a technical outage isn’t just “servers down.” For an algorithm-driven app, the experience is the product—so when the feed breaks, it feels like the platform’s core promise breaks.

What we still don’t know

Even with the data-center power explanation, several important details remain unclear:

• Scope: how much of the disruption was U.S.-specific versus broader regional effects

• Duration by service: whether personalization, comments, publishing, and login recovered at different times

• Root-cause depth: whether this was a brief external power event or a larger resiliency issue (backup power, failover, or cascading system dependencies)

• Creator impact: whether videos stuck during the incident were delayed, deprioritized, or impacted in distribution after posting

Until a fuller technical postmortem is shared, the safest conclusion is simply that a power-related data center event triggered service instability and uneven recovery.

What happens next: realistic scenarios and triggers

• Full stabilization by peak hours (ET): error rates drop and comment/feed behavior normalizes consistently.

• Lingering issues for a subset of users: typically driven by caching, account session problems, or partial system recovery.

• A second wave during the next traffic surge: if the underlying capacity or failover configuration remains stressed.

• A formal follow-up statement: if the incident meaningfully affected creators, advertisers, or multiple products.

If your TikTok is still not working: quick checks that help

• Force close the app and reopen it

• Update the app to the latest version available on your device

• Toggle Wi-Fi/mobile data to rule out a local network routing problem

• Log out and back in (if possible) to refresh your session

• Clear the app cache (where your device allows)

• Avoid VPN/proxy routing temporarily, which can worsen login and loading behavior during partial outages

If comments still won’t load and the feed remains unstable after these steps, it’s likely service-side—and the most practical move is to try again later as systems finish stabilizing across regions.