youtube down: What to know about the major outage on Feb. 17, 2026

On Feb. 17, 2026, the video streaming service experienced a widespread outage that left many users unable to access videos on both the website and mobile apps. The disruption began in the evening Pacific time and persisted for several hours before most accounts returned to normal. Below is a concise timeline of events, practical fixes for anyone still seeing errors, and a look at the broader impact.

Timeline: how the outage unfolded

Initial error reports began to spike in the early evening on Feb. 17, with a noticeable surge around 8: 30 PM ET. Peak counts of affected users varied widely as the outage progressed; at its worst, tracking services recorded hundreds of thousands of problem reports nationwide. The U. S. West Coast experienced the highest concentration of issues early in the event.

Through the night and into the following day, the number of reports dropped dramatically. By 2: 00 PM ET on Feb. 18, automated trackers had fallen to just a few hundred active problem reports, suggesting that the bulk of users had regained access. Intermittent stragglers continued to log errors for a period after the main disruption; these were most often tied to cached data or devices holding onto a broken session from during the outage.

Live broadcasts and connected TV apps also felt the interruption at times, sending a ripple through creators who were on-air and viewers relying on scheduled programming. By late afternoon ET the service was largely accessible again for most users, though some isolated pockets still experienced intermittent glitches.

What to do if you're still seeing errors

If video pages show blank home screens, reload errors, or a persistent "try again" message, try these steps before assuming the problem is ongoing on the provider side.

• Hard refresh your browser: On Windows use Control + F5; on Mac use Command + Shift + R. This forces the browser to pull a fresh copy of the page instead of using a cached snapshot from the outage.
• Restart the app: On phones and tablets, swipe the app away from recent apps and relaunch it. On smart TVs, quit the app or reboot the device.
• Clear cached data: In desktop browsers, open settings, select "Delete browsing data, " check cached images and files, and confirm. On iOS or Android, clear the app cache or reinstall the app if needed.
• Sign out and sign back in: If you still see odd behavior, a full sign-out can clear lingering session data tied to the outage.

For most users, one or a combination of these steps resolves the issue quickly. If problems persist despite these actions, try switching networks (for example, from Wi-Fi to cellular) to rule out a local connectivity issue.

Why this mattered and next steps

Interruptions of this scale affect a broad ecosystem: creators streaming live events, viewers relying on scheduled content, and advertisers running time-sensitive campaigns. Even a few hours offline can disrupt scheduled premieres, live broadcasts, and revenue flows tied to ad impressions and memberships.

Technical investigations after major outages typically examine routing, authentication, and content delivery systems to identify the root cause. While the bulk of users were restored within a day, isolated errors often linger because of cached site data or individual device states rather than an ongoing platform-wide failure.

For viewers and creators alike, the immediate priority is recovery: confirm that uploads and scheduled streams completed successfully, check monetization dashboards for missed metrics, and advise followers if a live stream was cut short. If you manage public-facing content, consider posting an update to let your audience know whether you will reschedule interrupted streams or uploads.

Today’s event serves as a reminder to have contingency plans for live content and to keep local copies of important streams. If you were affected and have followed the troubleshooting steps above without success, restarting your device after clearing caches often provides the final reset needed to restore normal service.