Samsung Smart TV apps back online after global outage

Samsung smart TVs worldwide are now functioning normally again after a widespread outage yesterday left users unable to access popular streaming applications.

The issue, which appeared to affect a large number of users globally, seems to have been resolved, although the precise cause of the disruption remains unclear.

Reports from users on Reddit and Samsung’s community forums began surfacing around 5PM ET on Thursday, with individuals complaining that apps such as YouTube, Apple TV, Hulu, and Prime Video would not open.

Instead of launching, users were met with a variety of error messages related to server maintenance, certification issues, or connectivity problems. Interestingly, many users noted that Netflix, which uses its own content delivery network, continued to work without any issues, suggesting the problem was linked to the servers supporting other streaming services.

While Samsung did not initially acknowledge the outage publicly, a response to a Redditor from Samsung support indicated that the company was “aware of a potential disruption of service” and that engineers were working to restore it. This was followed by an official confirmation from Samsung that the service was “affected for a small period of time overnight” but has now been restored.

The company advised customers still experiencing problems to power off and restart their TVs using their remote control, a temporary fix that many users had already discovered and shared.

For a period, some users who attempted a full factory reset found they couldn’t even download apps because the TV was unable to retrieve the terms and conditions, highlighting the severity of the server-side problem. Now that service has been restored, users can resume normal operation.