YouTube, YouTube TV back online after massive outage
YouTube, YouTube TV back online after massive outage
The two streaming platforms were down for hours on Tuesday night, but have since been restored.
Google headquarters must have been a somewhat frantic place on Tuesday evening. Starting at around 7:45 p.m. ET on Tuesday night, thousands of YouTube and YouTube TV customers were unable to access the platforms. A widespread outage gripped YouTube services thanks to an internal issue that appears to have been resolved as of Wednesday morning.
Key Details:
- Many affected: A widespread outage of YouTube and YouTube TV prevented thousands from watching the platforms on Tuesday night.
- Not so helpful: YouTube officials blamed the site’s recommendation engine for the outage.
- Back in action: As of Wednesday morning, the problem appears fully resolved.
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The website Downdetector registered over 300,000 complaints that YouTube was not functional on Tuesday night. Users reported being unable to watch their subscription feed, Shorts, or even to access the service’s home page, whether on the service’s website or on its mobile app.
Although not as widespread, YouTube TV also suffered an outage on Tuesday night. Subscribers like The Streamable’s own Matt Tamanini report issues logging into YouTube TV; using a mobile device or computer to try to log into YouTube TV on a TV continued to bring up the same error message, as shown in the images below.
Despite allowing customers to log in, YouTube TV would show an error:
Click images to expand.
At around 9:30 p.m. ET, YouTube acknowledged that a problem with its recommendation system was preventing videos from appearing correctly on YouTube and was working on a fix. The company also said that YouTube TV subscribers who weren’t able to log in were experiencing a related issue.
Shortly after 10 p.m. ET, YouTube reported it was fully back online, and reports about continued issues have ceased as of Wednesday morning. Still, that’s of little comfort to viewers who had to miss a chosen program on YouTube TV on Tuesday night, and the streamer is unlikely to offer a credit for such a short outage.
Nevertheless, the issue is resolved, and the most-watched streaming platform in the United States is back online. YouTube engineers are kept busy by the platform’s various idiosyncrasies; in December, YouTube TV customers experienced widespread issues watching their DVR content as well.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 60 channels for $82.99/month. This plan includes local channels 32 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs) in select markets. The base plan includes more than 100 live channels, including major broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as popular cable channels such as ESPN, CNN, FX, USA Network, and TNT. Local channels are included in most markets, making YouTube TV a full replacement for traditional cable for many viewers.
