YouTube global failure yesterday, leaving millions unable to use it or YouTubeTv.... sign of things to come?

[iamwhatiseem]

YouTube says the problem was it's "recommendation system".
Which is A.I. Google's A.I. had a bad day. And that A.I., rather than skipping past recommending vidoes - it refused to allow them to see anything at all.
Most users either saw a blank white screen with "Something went wrong" - or a screen with pixilated garbage.
Sign of things to come?

https://www.techradar.com/news/live/youtube-down-february-2026

 

[JustAnotherNut]

If you were subscribed to any channels, you could click and go to them and watch, but yeah the 'front page' of your feed wasn't there

 

[martybegan]

YouTube says the problem was it's "recommendation system".
Which is A.I. Google's A.I. had a bad day. And that A.I., rather than skipping past recommending vidoes - it refused to allow them to see anything at all.
Most users either saw a blank white screen with "Something went wrong" - or a screen with pixilated garbage.
Sign of things to come?

https://www.techradar.com/news/live/youtube-down-february-2026

The fact that failures like this make the news means they are infrequent enough to make said failures newsworthy.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

If you were subscribed to any channels, you could click and go to them and watch, but yeah the 'front page' of your feed wasn't there

No - you could not get to anything. Like others, I tried to "view as guest" - just got a blank screen. YouTubeTV was unavailable because you couldn't login. Doesn't matter what you watch, you can't get past a login fail.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

No - you could not get to anything. Like others, I tried to "view as guest" - just got a blank screen. YouTubeTV was unavailable because you couldn't login. Doesn't matter what you watch, you can't get past a login fail.

I hadn't logged out before, so maybe that's why I could still access my subscriptions, but still didn't have the feed

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I hadn't logged out before, so maybe that's why I could still access my subscriptions, but still didn't have the feed

Correct - the problem was when someone used a different device - that resulted in denial of access to ALL devices.
I went to ROKU to watch one of my subscription videos - and that resulted in loss of everything. My mother lives with us downstairs - she was watching YouTubeTV and in the middle of a show - screen went black.
To me - what is crazy here, is that the A.I. could not get past a simple failure of the "recommended videos" service. And simply froze everything instead.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

This is akin to, I believe it is Nissan Infinities?? Where they are having HUGE problems with the car's A.I. braking. They will be driving along and suddenly the car brakes hard and dies. And they can't get past it. Literally stranded.
Or the A.I. Uber cars that have locked customers in the car, the car will drive in circles. The only thing a tech can do is stop the car and they have to get out and walk.

 

[Chuz Life]

Man, could you imagine if and when Porn Hub goes down like that?

 

[martybegan]

Man, could you imagine if and when Porn Hub goes down like that?

That would only leave 4999999 porn sites left!!!!

 

[Mac-7]

YouTube says the problem was it's "recommendation system".
Which is A.I. Google's A.I. had a bad day. And that A.I., rather than skipping past recommending vidoes - it refused to allow them to see anything at all.
Most users either saw a blank white screen with "Something went wrong" - or a screen with pixilated garbage.
Sign of things to come?

https://www.techradar.com/news/live/youtube-down-february-2026

There was a 300 minute wait time to speak to a live person at YouTube

Seriously

 

[Chuz Life]

That would only leave 4999999 porn sites left!!!!

It was only a joke.

I wouldn't know.