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YouTube recovers from global outage on mobile, web platforms

Published: 18 Feb. 2026, 13:50 Updated: 18 Feb. 2026, 19:17

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

A person holds a phone showing YouTube's homepage. The video platform experienced a service error on Feb. 18. [NEWS1]

YouTube experienced service disruptions on its mobile and web platforms for about an hour on Wednesday, though all functions were restored by 11 a.m.

Users encountered an error message on YouTube's mobile app and website and were unable to access a few services on Wednesday morning, according to the information technology industry.

While livestreams and videos from existing subscribed channels remained accessible, the algorithm-based recommendation function was not working.

Users complained about the inconvenience on social networking platforms, commenting that they kept receiving error messages and that videos on the homepage and recommended videos were not appearing.

On Downdetector, a website that tracks outages of IT services, the number of reports related to YouTube surged starting Wednesday morning. The outage was not limited to Korea. Downdetector reported more than 300,000 outages in the United States alone.

“The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved, and all of our platforms [including] YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids and TV are back to normal,” the company said in an update.

It added that a data indexing error occurred on the homepage during a service update and that it is currently investigating the cause.

Google Korea separately reported to the Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday that the YouTube homepage experienced a video transmission outage beginning at approximately 10:03 a.m.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PARK JONG-SUH, LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]