Outlook down? Microsoft email platform is recovering after suffering a major outage - here's what happened

Microsoft Outlook appears to be suffering a significant outage, with users across the world unable to access the platform.

Outage reports began to surface a few minutes ago, with Outlook.com apparently unavailable.

That's quite the spike in outage reports, courtesy of DownDetector.com!

So what has Microsoft said so far?

Its official status platform confirms there is an issue with Outlook.com, so at least the company is aware of the issue.

"Users may be unable to access their mailbox using any connection methods," the page says.

"We're continuing to apply the configuration changes to fix the underlying problem and completing additional validation efforts to ensure authentication components are properly configured. In parallel to the current deployment of the configuration change fix, we're reviewing options to leverage an expedited deployment methodology in regions which are experiencing the highest levels of impact to provide the most effective relief where possible."

It adds impacted connection methods include, but may not be limited to:

- Outlook.com

- Outlook Mobile

- Outlook desktop client

For anyone trying alternate ways to try and log in to Outlook, it's worth noting Microsoft saying the outage affects the platform on web, mobile and desktop - so you might be out of luck!

This outage comes just as the East Coast of the US clocks in for the day, so it could mean a disrupted start for workers...

It's interesting to note Microsoft has yet to update its official Outlook, Windows and Microsoft accounts on X.

Reports of Microsoft Outlook going down first appeared more than 12 hours ago - but there's still nothing...

However the Microsoft Outlook Twitter account hasn't actually posted since June 11, so it may be that it's not active any more anyways!

As we try to find out more - here's some thoughts from Desire Athow, Managing Editor here at TechRadar Pro...

"Microsoft says that its Outlook desktop client, the popular Microsoft email client that is usually bundled with Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365), is also down, which is a bit of a surprise. No other Microsoft products are currently impacted by the downtime which leaves me to believe that it may be something to do with the email middleware itself rather than a more widespread data center infrastructure."

An update from Microsoft from its official status page - where the outage has now been upgraded from a "warning" to an official issues;

"We're continuing to apply the configuration changes to fix the underlying problem and completing additional validation efforts to ensure authentication components are properly configured. In parallel to the current deployment of the configuration change fix, we're reviewing options to leverage an expedited deployment methodology in regions which are experiencing the highest levels of impact to provide the most effective relief where possible."

Microsoft has promised another update by 4.30pm UTC - so in about an hour's time - but while it works, outage reports keep on rising.

We've spotted the official Microsoft 365 Status Twitter feed is providing much more information on the outage - here's what it has to say...

We're now entering the second hour of the outage, and it seems thousands of users are still unable to access Outlook.com, on web and mobile.

There's no concrete updates from Microsoft - so we're sitting and waiting to see how this will go.

If you're just joining us - a quick recap...

Users have been complaining about a major outage in Outlook for the last few hours - coinciding with the start of the working day in the US.

The outage affects Outlook on web and mobile, and has been going on for some time - Microsoft says it is working on a fix, but outage reports remain high.

We may finally be reaching a turning point - nearly three hours in, and outage reports are finally beginning to drop at last.

There's still no further comment from Microsoft, but this could be the beginning of the end (we hope)...

Here we are - Microsoft thinks it has finally fixed the issue at last! Anyone affected should be seeing a solution soon, we hope.

Outage reports are falling fast on DownDetector, so this is likely the end of the issues.

We're going to stay tracking for a little while longer, but Microsoft says users and admins should now be able to continue operating as normal.

One final update from Microsoft - for admins this time.