YouTube outage blanks out the sidebar, causes problems on TVs and game consoles

If you’ve logged onto YouTube today, you may have noticed that something was off with the homepage: the sidebar that lets you access things like your subscriptions feed, trending videos, and “Library” that keeps your Watch Later list and video history, is missing (though you can access some of the pages by clicking on the links we’ve included). Other problems are cutting off people when trying to cast videos to a smart TV or watch streams from a game console.

The account menu, which lets you switch accounts, manage settings, and view your channel, is also broken. You can still watch videos from your homepage or search, but for people who like to carefully manage their YouTube experience or creators who aren’t logged into the correct account, it’s a real pain. In my tests, the issues existed on both Safari and Chrome — and across different accounts.

YouTube says that it’s aware of the issue and is working on a fix. The company says it’ll be sharing updates in a thread on its support site. The post currently reads:

If you’re having trouble using YouTube services across devices right now - we’re aware and working to fix it!

Here’s what you might be experiencing: Unable to sign-in or switch accounts Unable to cast to your TV or use the app on a gaming console Left-hand Navigation Menus and Setting menus are not appearing / not loading‘No internet connection’ error message when watching videos

Hopefully, that comes soon. While one of my co-workers said they don’t really miss the sidebar, some users (like me) and most creators will probably miss having easy access to the functions hidden in the currently broken menus.

Thankfully, the YouTube app seems to be working fine on mobile, so there are still options for accessing your subscriptions and Watch Later list.