- TikTok has been facing app issues for US users since January 25
- The problems followed TikTok’s US spinoff into a new joint venture
- TikTok says a US data center power outage is to blame
While the official spinoff of TikTok’s US operations to the TikTok USDS Joint Venture closed last week, things in the first few days under this new ownership have been less than perfect. Primarily, the platform has been disrupted since yesterday, January 25, 2026, resulting in the app not working properly for many users.
I’ve experienced the feed showing older videos, pausing in the middle of content, audio not syncing, and even videos not fully uploading. I’ve heard similar stories from friends who use TikTok — one saw a video post that wasn’t visible to other users — and Down Detector shows a spike that started in the early morning hours of January 25, 2026.
It may be that after the TikTok USDS Joint Venture was formalized, it is experiencing growing pains as this new entity takes control of the algorithm and moves operations to new data centers. Keep in mind that in the middle of last week, after the deal was announced, new terms and conditions were rolled out to TikTok users in the US.
The TikTok USDS Joint Ventures X (formerly Twitter) account went public earlier today, January 26, to address the issues. “Since yesterday, we have been working to restore our services following a power outage in a US data center affecting TikTok and other apps we operate,” noting that the issues people experienced were due to a power outage in a US data center. These issues also tie in with an increase in reports for CapCut, the editing app owned by ByteDance – TikTok’s parent company and still a partial owner of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture.
The post ends with: “We are working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We apologize for this outage and hope to resolve it soon.” This was published at 10:21 AM ET on January 26, 2026, and as of this release, there are still over 1,000 reports of issues with TikTok. That’s more than an average day, but less than the nearly 8,000 reported last night.
Since yesterday, we have been working to restore our services following a power outage in a US data center affecting TikTok and other apps we operate. We are working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We apologize for this inconvenience and hope to resolve it soon.26 January 2026
Hopefully TikTok US will be able to share a bit more about what’s happening in the hours or days after this is fully resolved, but it’s been a rough start for the platform so far. If you’re still having trouble with your FYP feed, uploading videos, loading comments, or just using the app in general, let us know in the comments below.
The timing of these functional issues also coincides with increased scrutiny of the new terms and conditions — specifically around how the app will collect location data and use user data for AI training — as well as the platform’s updated content moderation policies.
At the very least, let’s hope that the TikTok USDS Joint Venture can soon fix these issues related to “a power outage in a US data center” so we can all get back to rolling on the app.
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