YouTube encountered a problem on the morning of the 2nd day of Tet

Since 8am, many users in Vietnam reported having problems accessing YouTube. On the mobile application, the screen displays the message “An error occurred” with a “Try again” button, but when clicked, the content still does not appear. On the web browser, the YouTube homepage even displays blank, with no videos or navigation bar.

Ms. Ha Khanh, 32 years old, living in Cau Giay (Hanoi), said she discovered an error when her child asked to open YouTube on TV to watch children’s music. “The app opens but doesn’t display any videos. I tried it on my phone and computer and it’s the same,” she said. According to her, the morning of the second day of Tet is a time for families to rest, so not being able to access familiar entertainment services causes inconvenience.

On social networks, many people share screenshots of the error message and say the situation occurs all at once, regardless of the network operator or device. Some tried switching between wifi and mobile data but the situation did not improve.

The problem was recorded on all three popular platforms including phone applications, smart TVs and websites. Some said the app could still be opened, but the video wouldn’t load or stopped midway. Many accounts also reported errors when logging in.

According to data from DownDetector – a site that monitors the operational status of online services, on the morning of February 18, this website recorded more than 300,000 reports related to YouTube. The most common complaints are website inaccessibility, application errors and login problems.

YouTube is a video sharing platform owned by Google, widely used in Vietnam for entertainment, learning and following news. These widespread service disruptions do not happen often, but each time attracts great attention due to the large number of users.

By nearly 10 a.m., the system gradually restored even though some accounts were not working stably.

On its support page, the platform confirmed a recommendation system error that caused videos to not show up on services like YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids. YouTube said the homepage is working normally and the technical team is continuing to work to completely fix the remaining problems.

Right before Tet, a popular social networking platform, Facebook, also encountered problems, causing intermittent service provision, affecting users.