YouTube users across multiple regions reported issues early Wednesday morning after the popular video-streaming platform experienced a widespread disruption. The outage left thousands unable to access videos, refresh the homepage, or stream content smoothly through the app.
The incident began around 6:16 am IST, when users started flagging problems on outage-tracking website Downdetector. Within an hour, more than 19,000 reports had been logged, indicating a significant service disruption affecting both mobile and desktop users.
According to user reports, the majority of complaints were linked to the YouTube app. Around 16% of affected users specifically cited streaming- issues, including videos failing to load or constant buffering.
Several users noted that the homepage was not displaying recommended videos, while others were unable to access YouTube Music and YouTube Kids properly. The disruption appeared to affect multiple surfaces of the platform simultaneously.
TeamYouTube acknowledged the issue in a public post, stating that they were aware some users were experiencing access problems. The company confirmed that its technical teams were actively investigating the issue and promised to provide updates.
Later, YouTube revealed that the outage was caused by a malfunction in its recommendations system. This technical issue prevented videos from appearing on the homepage and impacted other services, including YouTube Music and YouTube Kids.
“The homepage is back, but we’re still working on a full fix – more coming soon,” the company said in an update.
While reports on Downdetector began declining after the initial spike, some users continued to flag intermittent problems. The homepage functionality has reportedly been restored, but a complete resolution was still underway at the time of the latest update.
Users experiencing ongoing issues are advised to:
Refresh the app or website
Check for app updates
Clear cache and restart the device
In most cases, outages of this nature are resolved within a few hours once backend systems are stabilised.
