Tens of thousands of Microsoft Outlook users encountered issues with the email service on Saturday afternoon. Microsoft 365, the platform that oversees services like Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint, acknowledged the problem and took action by identifying a potential cause of impact. By 5:01 p.m. ET, they had reverted the suspected code to alleviate the impact.
While the outage reports primarily focused on Outlook, Microsoft clarified that the issue was affecting various Microsoft 365 services. The company assured users that they were actively monitoring the systems for recovery. Despite requests for comment, Microsoft did not provide any additional information.
Users also reported problems with Xbox services, which are under Microsoft's umbrella. DownDetector received reports as early as 3:30 p.m. ET, with a peak of over 37,000 reported issues around 4:00 p.m. ET. Some users even faced difficulties with the Authenticator app for Outlook due to the ongoing outage.
Recent weeks have seen intermittent problems with Outlook, adding to user frustration. Microsoft has a history of experiencing significant global outages, with incidents in 2023 and 2024 that took several hours to resolve. Notably, on November 26, Outlook and Teams services were restored after more than 24 hours of technical delays.
