Outage began before 10 p.m. ET and lasted roughly two hours Users started reporting failures shortly before 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Feb. 18, and the disruption persisted until the platform announced a fix after 10 p.m. ET, ending an approximate two‑hour outage [1][2]. DownDetector logged more than 300,000 reports , with about half tied to the mobile app and 19 % to the web version, indicating widespread impact across devices [1][2]. The problem affected both the main YouTube site and its app , confirming a cross‑platform failure rather than an isolated service issue [1][2].

YouTube TV experienced a separate interruption affecting thousands During the same window, YouTube TV reported trouble for over 8,000 viewers, showing the outage’s reach into the company’s streaming TV product [1][2]. YouTube Music and YouTube Kids also suffered video‑display problems , as the recommendation engine glitch prevented content from appearing on these surfaces [1][2]. The outage’s scope spanned all major YouTube services , underscoring the systemic nature of the fault [1][2].

A recommendation‑system glitch was identified as the root cause At 9:20 p.m. ET, YouTube attributed the failure to a fault in its recommendations engine that blocked videos from appearing on the homepage, app, Music, and Kids [1][2]. The homepage was restored first while engineers worked on a full fix , and by 10:15 p.m. ET the company confirmed normal operation across every platform [1][2]. YouTube’s public statements acknowledged the issue and promised updates , reflecting active monitoring and communication with users [2].