youtube down: Platforms restored after surge of access problems on Feb. 17, 2026
On Feb. 17, 2026, users across the United States and beyond encountered widespread access problems with the service, with reports peaking in the evening hours. The company confirmed the issue was fixed by about 10: 00 p. m. ET, after a recommendation system glitch and login problems left parts of the site and app behaving oddly for several hours.
Scope and timeline of the outage
Problems began to spike in the late afternoon and early evening, with the first noticeable surge of user complaints starting around 8: 00 p. m. ET. A crowd-sourced outage tracker recorded several hundred thousand reports at the height of the incident, making this one of the more significant accessibility disruptions in recent memory.
The most commonly affected element was the mobile app's home and recommendation feeds; many users could still load and play individual videos but saw errors or blank content when trying to browse suggested material. Some users also experienced trouble logging into the TV-focused service, an issue was tied to the broader platform-wide disruption.
What failed, how the company responded, and user fixes
The root cause was identified as a malfunction in the recommendations system. The company posted that the recommendations failure had been resolved and that the website, app, music, kids, and TV experiences were back to normal by roughly 10: 00 p. m. ET. Earlier in the outage window, the company acknowledged it was working on login issues affecting a subset of users of the TV service and was addressing that alongside the main problem.
During the outage, users described seeing homepage errors while saved and recently watched videos remained accessible. Online reaction ranged from practical troubleshooting posts to lighthearted jokes about a future “Great Outage” retrospective. For individuals still affected after the fix was announced, common troubleshooting steps helped most people recover quickly:
- Force-close and reopen the app or perform a hard refresh in your browser (Control+F5 on Windows, Command+Shift+R on Mac).
- Clear the cache or stored site data on the device to remove any snapshot taken during the outage.
- Restart the device if problems persist, and ensure any app updates are installed.
Recovery, lingering effects and what to watch for
By 10: 00 p. m. ET the company declared service restored across its products, and the volume of new problem reports fell sharply. Still, a small number of users continued to see stale or error pages until they refreshed or cleared local data. Those stragglers are typical after a widespread disruption, as cached pages or lingering sessions often retain the broken state even after backend systems are fixed.
Outages that touch recommendation systems can have outsized effects because they alter what users are served on load rather than simply preventing playback. Creators and viewers alike felt the impact: browsing, discovery and the usual autoplay flows were interrupted for several hours, disrupting scheduled uploads and casual viewing alike.
For now, the platform's public message indicates the incident was resolved and normal service has resumed. Users who continue to experience issues should follow the basic troubleshooting steps above and allow a short window for cached content to refresh as systems finish stabilizing.
