Microsoft has confirmed an outage affecting Outlook after more than 60,000 users reported problems with email services this evening. The issues include error codes and frozen screens when users attempt to send emails.
Some users are seeing a 'Failed to fetch' error, which occurs when a browser sends a request to a server and fails to receive a response.
Microsoft confirms impact on mailboxes
Microsoft confirmed the outage is affecting 'mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas', but gave no indication of how long the problem could last.
The company said on X: "We're investigating reports of users experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas. More details can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center under EX1550543."
The company added: "While we're working to mitigate impact, we've confirmed the issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region, more information will be provided in the Microsoft 365 admin center under EX1550543."
Users report widespread disruption
Social media users reacted to the outage with frustration. One user wrote: "Very wordy way of saying 'we're down and don't know when we'll be back up.'"
Another said: "Outlook and teams are both down. Can't really do my job without either and I have a teams meeting in 45…"
A third user commented: "Outlook going down is just the beginning. Go booze and canned soup asap. Were f***ed."
A fourth said: "I genuinely can't believe I'm at a point in my life where the first thing I did this morning was open Twitter to check if I was the only person experiencing issues with Microsoft Outlook."
Outage spreads globally
Microsoft directed users to its Microsoft 365 admin centre, but social media users reported that page was also down. One said: "Even the status page isn't working lmfao." Another questioned: "I wonder if they tested that link before they posted it?"
More than 60,000 people in the US, where the issue first arose, are experiencing problems with Outlook. Issues were first raised at 4pm but have since spread worldwide.
In the UK, more than 3,300 reported issues within 20 minutes after the first complaint was raised at around 5.20pm, according to outage tracker Downdetector.
Outlook, which started as Hotmail in 1996, was rebranded in 2012 and has more than 500 million users worldwide. The company has recently been transitioning users away from its classic Outlook desktop application towards a unified, web-based architecture known as the "new Outlook" for Windows.
