YouTube had a major outage on 17 February 2026 that affected users worldwide, including tens of thousands in the UK, but services are now largely restored and should be working again for most people.

What’s been happening?

  • YouTube experienced a rare, large‑scale outage that hit both the website and apps, plus YouTube TV for some users.
  • The issue started around 00:50 GMT (evening of 17 Feb US time), with over 30,000 reports from the UK and hundreds of thousands globally.
  • Google said a problem with YouTube’s recommendations system stopped videos appearing on key surfaces (homepage, app, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids).
  • Google has stated that the homepage is back and a “full fix” is rolling out, so some people may still see minor glitches.

In short: if YouTube feels a bit odd (blank home, missing recommendations) in the UK right now, you’re not alone, and it’s tied to this broader outage rather than just your device.

How to check if YouTube is down for you (UK)

If you want to confirm what’s happening right now:

  1. Visit an outage‑tracking site (e.g., Downdetector‑style status pages) and look for current UK reports and a spike in complaints for YouTube.

  1. Try YouTube on:

    • A different device (phone vs. laptop).
    • A different connection (mobile data vs. home Wi‑Fi).
      If it works elsewhere, the issue is likely local, not a UK‑wide outage.

  2. Check official YouTube Help / support posts for any ongoing incident updates or confirmation that the issue has been fully resolved.

If those sites show normal levels of reports and YouTube loads fine on another connection, it’s probably not “YouTube down UK” anymore but a local network, browser, or app problem on your side.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.