YouTube users across the world are reporting problems accessing the platform. Issues began just after 12pm AEDT, with the homepage and subscriptions feed appearing to go down for many viewers.
Update: YouTube has been restored. You can view the cause and explanation from Google below.
Outage tracker Downdetector showed a sharp spike in complaints, peaking at around 340,000 reports globally.
Image: Downdetector
Social media platforms have also been flooded with posts about the YouTube outage, including a dedicated post on the subreddit r/youtube, which at the time of writing has over 8,700 comments.
The disruption appears to be affecting core YouTube features, including the homepage, subscriptions feed, and Shorts, for some users.
Since the outage began, Google has confirmed that the outage is affecting “homepage, recommendations, search and uploads”.
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It’s worth noting the platform isn’t completely offline. Users have reported that videos could still be played.
SmartCompany was able to load and play videos on both desktop browsers and the mobile YouTube app. However, the homepage failed to load reliably.
Image: Tegan Jones/SmartCompany
However, we logged out of the TV app and were not able to log back in. We repeatedly received this error message during our attempts:
“500. There’s an error. There was an error. Please try again. That’s all we know.”
Users have also reported a similar experience being forcibly logged out on Xbox and PlayStation 5.
What caused the partial YouTube outage?
YouTube acknowledged the outage on X just before 1pm AEDT.
“If you’re having trouble accessing YouTube right now, you’re not alone — our teams are looking into this and will follow up here with updates,” the post reads.
If you’re having trouble accessing YouTube right now, you’re not alone — our teams are looking into this and will follow up here with updates: https://t.co/7iTU5S9AgT
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) February 18, 2026
At the time of writing, the support page has been updated, saying that the problem has been fixed.
“The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved and all of our platforms (YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV) are back to normal! We really appreciate you bearing with us while we sorted this out,” the post said.
A previous updated pointed to the cause of the outage.
“An issue with our recommendations system prevented videos from appearing across surfaces on YouTube (including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music and YouTube Kids),” the post said.
Image: YouTube
It went on to confirm that the homepage is back online, but that the team is still working on a complete fix.
“We’re also seeing a small number of reports that some people are unable to login to YouTube TV. This is related to the broader issue across YouTube, and we’re also working on a fix here.”
The original support page acknowledged the issue and stated the team would provide updates as they had them.
The top of the page also references the outage, stating that the issue is currently affecting the YouTube homepage as well as search, recommendations and uploads.”
It also makes the point of stating its “support agents do not have any additional information to share with you at this time”.
