Yahoo and AOL had an issue, as users flocked to Downdetector to report an outage. In just a matter of moments, over 3,000 people flocked to the outage reporting service to report problems, and it peaked at more than 18,000 before dropping to a more normal level.
Yahoo finally acknowledged the outage on its YahooCare X account. "We are aware that some users may be experiencing issues accessing Yahoo services and websites. Our teams are actively investigating, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available," reads the post.
The outage appears to be resolved, which is great for users of Yahoo, AOL and Yahoo Mail.
Yahoo was down — Here's what happened
The reports are rolling in
Over 3,000 users have jumped to Downdetector to report an issue with Yahoo and others throwing reports at Yahoo Mail and AOL. Overall, there's enough reports rolling in quickly enough to assume that this is a fairly widespread issue.
Even HIGHER number of reports
Just when you thought Yahoo reports were high, the number almost tripled to 8,700. Yahoo Mail is still at 5,500 reports, and AOL is at 2,800 reports. That's more than 16,000 total reports, indicating that this outage is affecting users worldwide.
Social Media complaints
Hi there. We would love to take a look into this matter. Could you please DM us with your email address and some additional details regarding this issue? https://t.co/rFr36RN9SNJanuary 21, 2026
Users are starting to reach out to the Yahoo Mail X account about the outage, but it hasn't offered much in the way of advice. Instead, the social media representative just asked for more information about what's happening. Still, hopefully, this puts whatever is happening on the company's radar so it can get to work on fixing the problem.
And the reports climb higher
- AOL: 4,700
- Yahoo: 15,000
- Yahoo Mail: 8,000
Rather than leveling off, even more users are flocking in with reports. See the list above for the reports as of this writing.
Too many requests
The error most users seem to be seeing is "Edge: Too many requests." If you're seeing this when you try to get access to any Yahoo-owned service, you're not alone.
17,000 reports!
We're currently sitting at more than 17,000 reports on the main Yahoo Downdetector page, which is an absurd number. If you thought Yahoo wasn't as popular as it used to be, this outage is a sign that many people on the internet still use its mail service and homepage for news and information.
Still nothing from Yahoo
Yahoo has been quiet about the outage, so we're not entirely sure what's happening. We've reached out to several contacts within the company to see if we can get a comment, and will add a post to this live report if we hear anything.
Running Downdetector
It's all Yahoo and AOL on Downdetector at the moment, with the three main services completely dominating.
Yahoo is aware
We are aware that some users may be experiencing issues accessing Yahoo services and websites. Our teams are actively investigating, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available.January 21, 2026
Yahoo posted on its YahooCare X account that it's "aware that some users may be experiencing issues accessing Yahoo services and websites." It also said it is "actively investigating, and updates will be provided as more information becomes available."
A big drop...
While Yahoo finally acknowledged the outage, we're also seeing the first substantial drop in the reports.
It peaked at around 19,000 reports and is now at 12,000. Could this be the first sign that things are coming back to normal? We shall see, but it seems to be a positive step.
Down to 5,000 on the main Yahoo site
It looks like we're down to 5,000 on the main Yahoo site. Yahoo Mail is looking at about 4,000 reports and AOL is at 3,000. These are large number still, but nothing in comparison to what it was at its peak.
Working for me
While I don't use Yahoo Mail personally, I just went to the homepage, and it's working for me now. I was getting the dreaded "Too Many Requests" errors until a few minutes ago. There may be some straggler reports running in the background, but it seems we might be approaching the end of the Yahoo outage.
Down to sub-1,000
It looks like the outage is officially over, as we're down to below 1,000 reports. We'll keep watching it, but for now, I think we can call this done and dusted.
Statement from Yahoo
A Yahoo spokesperson responded to our request for comment with the following:
“We became aware of issues users were experiencing accessing Yahoo services globally after rolling out a change to our traffic management system. After reverting the change, Yahoo services have fully recovered with the impact lasting less than an hour."
