About YouTube outages
YouTube is the world's biggest video site, so even a short outage sends millions of people searching at once. Problems usually show up as videos stuck buffering, a black player, or comments failing to load.
Tip: If the website works but the app doesn't, force-close the YouTube app and reopen it, or check for an app update.
YouTube is up, but it won't work for me. What now?
- Refresh hard. Press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or Cmd+Shift+R (Mac) to skip your browser's cache.
- Try another network. Switch your phone from Wi-Fi to mobile data. If it loads, your home network or internet provider is the issue.
- Restart your router. Unplug it for 30 seconds. This clears a lot of connection glitches.
- Turn off VPNs and ad blockers for a moment. Some sites block them.
- Update or reinstall the app if it's only the app that won't work.