If you’ve tried smashing YouTube’s “like” button recently, you might’ve noticed that the thumbs-up icon just... disappeared. As spotted earlier by 9to5Google, the like counter still goes up when you press it, but what’s left is just an empty gray space where the thumbs-up icon should be.
YouTube’s ‘like’ button wasn’t broken, it was just hiding
YouTube fixed a bug that caused the thumbs-up ‘Like’ icon to disappear.
YouTube fixed a bug that caused the thumbs-up ‘Like’ icon to disappear.
Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.
Several users, including myself and my colleagues, spotted the vanishing like button across several YouTube videos and in different web browsers. Despite this, the dislike button still worked fine.
Late on Tuesday evening, YouTube tweeted that the problem has been fixed, ending our long national nightmare.
In a support page published Tuesday while the problem was occurring, YouTube said the like button “isn’t working as intended” and that it was looking into the issue. “Rest assured, whether or not the icon is showing, the video is still receiving the like!”
It doesn’t look like this is the first time YouTube’s like button disappeared. Some users on Reddit reported a similar issue months ago.
Update June 5th: Noted the problem has been fixed.
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