is youtube down — Major outage disrupts app and logins before service restored by 10 p.m. ET

Late on Tuesday evening, a widespread outage left large numbers of users unable to access key parts of the video service. The disruption, which peaked at roughly 350, 000 problem reports at about 8 p. m. ET, centered on the app and homepage recommendations and also produced intermittent login failures for a related TV product. Service operators said the issue was resolved by around 10 p. m. ET.

What happened and when

The initial surge of problem reports began around 8 p. m. ET, with a crowd-sourced outage tracker logging hundreds of thousands of complaints about the platform. Users described homepage panels failing to load and recommendation feeds coming up blank, though many could still access saved or recently viewed videos. Some people also encountered login interruptions for the TV streaming tier tied to the same account system.

At first, visitors to the service’s homepage saw error messages while individual video pages often continued to load and play. That inconsistent behaviour pointed to an issue focused on the recommendations and account systems rather than a total blackout of video delivery.

Impact on users and creators

The outage hit everyday viewers and creators alike. For casual users, the main annoyance was an empty or unresponsive home screen that made discovery and browsing difficult. Content creators and people who rely on the platform for live streams and scheduled posts faced uncertainty because the recommendations system helps drive views and engagement; any interruption can disrupt planned releases and audience outreach.

Social commentary and jokes about the disruption spread quickly across social networks, with creators quipping about making long, retrospective videos on the incident itself. Meanwhile, some journalists and industry observers said the partial availability of saved videos gave the outage a patchwork feel — some parts of the service worked normally while others did not.

How it was fixed and what users should do

Platform teams worked through the evening to isolate and restore affected systems. A statement posted on the service’s help page said the problem with the recommendations system had been resolved and that all of the company’s major products were back to normal by about 10 p. m. ET. The teams also noted they were handling a smaller, related set of login issues with the TV product and that those efforts were wrapped up alongside the main fix.

Users who still encounter trouble after a system-wide fix should try basic troubleshooting: refresh the app or browser, sign out and sign back in, clear cached data for the app, and restart devices. If problems persist, checking the service’s official status guidance or the in-app support pages can provide targeted steps. For creators concerned about lost reach during the outage window, monitoring analytics in the hours after restoration will show whether audience behavior returned to normal or if extra promotion is needed.

Tuesday’s event is a reminder of how much modern viewing depends on recommendation engines and account services as well as raw video delivery. Even when individual clips remain playable, interruptions to discovery and login systems can have outsized effects on both viewers and the people who make content for the platform.