YouTube Confirms Widespread Outage Affecting Web and Mobile Apps [Update: Service Restored]

YouTube users worldwide encountered significant service disruptions starting around 8 p.m. PT on February 17, 2026, affecting both the web platform and mobile applications across iOS and Android devices. The outage tracker Downdetector recorded a massive spike in reports minutes after the service failure began, indicating a broad systemic issue impacting YouTube's core functionality.

Initial symptoms included complete failure of the YouTube homepage and subscriptions feed, while direct video links loaded slowly with significant playback lag. The YouTube Shorts feed proved particularly vulnerable, becoming completely inaccessible for most users during the outage. Mobile app users reported being unexpectedly signed out of their accounts mid-session, with some viewers abruptly ejected from videos they were actively watching.

YouTube's engineering team acknowledged the outage through their official TeamYouTube social media channel, stating: "We can confirm that we're aware of the issue & our team is currently working on a fix. We appreciate your patience while we get this sorted." Notably, Google lacks a public status page for YouTube, forcing users to rely on third-party monitoring services and social media reports to track outage progress.

The disruption extended beyond main YouTube services to impact YouTube TV subscribers, though the primary issues centered around content discovery features rather than complete platform failure. Users attempting to access specific videos via direct URLs could sometimes load content after extended delays, suggesting backend API failures rather than complete infrastructure collapse.

Update 9:21 p.m. ET: YouTube services began gradually restoring approximately two hours after initial outage reports. Platform functionality returned to normal across most regions by 9:30 p.m. PT, though some users reported residual sluggishness in subscription feeds and Shorts sections. YouTube has not released a root cause analysis, but the global scale suggests a backend configuration error or critical service dependency failure rather than regional network issues.

This incident highlights the fragility of centralized content platforms and the importance of third-party monitoring tools when major services lack transparent status reporting. Developers should note the cascading impact on mobile applications, which experienced unexpected authentication revocations – a behavior worth accounting for in video playback error handling routines. For ongoing updates, users can monitor real-time outage reports through Downdetector's YouTube status page.