Video streaming platform YouTube faced a widespread outage on Friday, affecting thousands of users across several regions, including India, the United States, the United Kingdom and parts of Europe.
According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, more than 3,000 users reported problems with YouTube services by 6:30 pm IST. The number of complaints surged later in the evening, particularly in the US and the UK, where reports crossed 10,000 around 7 pm.
Users report buffering, app crashes
Downdetector data indicated that the disruption was largely caused by server connection issues. Many users complained that the YouTube homepage failed to load, while others said videos would not play even when the homepage was accessible.
Several users also reported unusually long buffering times, making video streaming nearly impossible. A section of mobile users said the YouTube app crashed repeatedly on their phones during the outage.
While Canada also reported some disruption, the impact there appeared to be limited compared to other regions.
Other Google services briefly affected
In some locations, related services such as YouTube TV were also reported to be down temporarily. However, there were no widespread reports of major outages across other Google platforms.
Neither YouTube nor its parent company Google issued an official statement explaining the cause of the outage while it was ongoing.
Services restored without official explanation
The disruption appeared to be short-lived, with services gradually returning to normal in most regions within a few hours. Users later reported being able to access videos and use the app without issues.
Large-scale outages on global platforms like YouTube often trigger a spike in Downdetector reports, as users turn to social media and monitoring tools to confirm whether problems are widespread or device-specific.
For now, YouTube services are functioning normally, though the company has not yet clarified what caused the temporary global disruption