Microsoft Outlook Outage Continues Into Friday Morning
A significant outage affecting Microsoft’s Outlook email services and various applications extended through Friday morning. The tech giant announced that it is actively working to restore functionality for affected users.
Initial Investigation Announced
Microsoft first alerted users to the issue on social media just before 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, stating it was “investigating reports of users experiencing issues” with access to online mailboxes.
Monitoring Services Report Widespread Problems
Downdetector, a service that tracks outages, confirmed reports of problems with Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and other products while the company undertook multiple corrective measures.
Continuous Updates from Microsoft
Updates regarding the ongoing efforts to resolve the outage have been shared on Microsoft’s official Microsoft 365 Status social media account, providing insights into the lengthy troubleshooting process.
Stability Improvements Underway
In a post made shortly after 11:30 p.m. ET, Microsoft stated it was working diligently to enhance server stability. They reported some signs of partial recovery in regions where changes had been implemented but noted that these improvements were not sustained, prompting a review of further actions to stabilize the infrastructure.
Pursuing Multiple Solutions
Earlier in the day, the company stated, “We’re aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact. We’ve paused all deployments, we are rerouting additional traffic away from the affected systems, and we are rebooting the impacted servers to reintegrate them into service.”
Partial Recovery Claimed
By 6 p.m. ET on Thursday, Microsoft reported that a portion of the affected servers had been restored to service, and they were stable at that time. However, it later warned that the servers might still become unresponsive when they receive traffic, necessitating ongoing fixes.
Issues with Microsoft Teams Reported
Earlier, Microsoft acknowledged that some users faced problems with Microsoft Teams but later indicated that “mitigative actions have successfully restored service health and functionality.”
Impact on New York City Services
During the outage, New York City’s Emergency Management Department alerted residents to potential delays when contacting city agencies. The department advised, “If you are trying to reach a New York City agency via email or access an online service reliant on Microsoft systems, you may encounter delays or temporary disruptions.” They recommended alternative communication methods for urgent requests, including calling 311 for non-emergency services and 911 in emergencies.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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