YouTube users reported the app on iPhones and iPads went down today at about 12:30 p.m., with many saying it repeatedly crashes when they try to open a video. More than 7,500 users reported issues with the app on DownDetector by 3 p.m. and 75 per cent of complaints said the issues were with the app itself.
The issues have ranged internationally, affecting users in countries outside the U.S. including Canada, Poland, and Sweden.
Users who were impacted by the outage have reported that opening the app will force it to close and crash mere seconds after logging in, and force closing and relaunching the app or restarting the device does not help.
It is unclear what is causing the issue, but the outages appear to be specific to iOS, according to 9to5Google. The outlet reported that it does not appear to have been caused by a recent app update and devices still running on a 17.46.4 version are currently fine.
Those who still want to access YouTube should still be able to do so through the website instead of the app, but new reports are suggesting the site may be having issues as well. One person wrote on DownDetector, “Can’t use the app, website also not responding.”
There have also been reports of similar crashes on YouTube Music and the company commented on its official Twitter page and wrote, “We’re aware that many of you using the YouTube app on iOS devices may be experiencing crashes. We’re so sorry about this and have begun working on a fix!” YouTube said it will provide updates as soon as they’re available.
The biggest thing users need to know is that they’ll likely need to download an update for the app (sometime soon…) to fix the issue.