Thousands of users reported issues using YouTube on Tuesday evening.
As of 5:30 p.m. Pacific time, there had been more than 283,000 problem reports, according to the unofficial, crowd-sourced site Downdetector. The most reported problem to the site was users saying they had issues using the YouTube app.
Around this time, the video service’s homepage returned an error message when an Independent reporter tried to use it, though individual videos appeared to still be loading and playing properly.
The Independent has contacted YouTube for comment and official confirmation.
“Looks like YouTube isn’t working properly,” Indiana-based journalist Hannah Adamson wrote on X. “I can still access saved and recently viewed videos, but nothing on the home page loads. Seeing a lot of people on X saying YouTube isn’t working for them either.”
The apparent issues on YouTube quickly inspired jokes online.
A YouTube gaming creator ParrotMode wrote on X that YouTubers were now “writing 45 minute scripts about The Great YouTube Outage of 2026.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.
