On the morning of Thursday, July 10, Microsoft Outlook experienced a significant outage, preventing users worldwide from logging into their accounts. According to Microsoft’s service status page, affected individuals were unable to access their mailboxes through any connection method, including Outlook.com, Outlook Mobile, and the desktop application.
Microsoft acknowledged the issue, stating that it was “applying configuration changes to resolve the underlying problem” while conducting additional validation to ensure authentication components were properly configured. The exact number of impacted users remains unclear, but reports indicate disruptions in multiple countries, including the UK, Australia, and Canada. With over 400 million users globally, the outage has caused widespread frustration.
Reports of the Outage Spike on DownDetector
According to DownDetector, an online service outage tracker, user complaints began surging around 5 a.m. ET on Thursday and continued to climb throughout the morning. Many affected users turned to X (formerly Twitter) to voice their concerns, sharing difficulties accessing their emails and other Outlook-related services.
History of Recent Microsoft Outages
This is not the first time Microsoft has faced such disruptions. In November 2024, the company investigated an issue affecting Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams Calendar, leaving users struggling to access key functionalities.
Just two months earlier, in September 2024, a Microsoft 365 outage locked thousands of users out of their accounts, preventing access to emails and other applications.
One of the most severe incidents occurred in July 2023, when a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused a global crash of Microsoft Windows systems. The disruption had far-reaching consequences, impacting banks, hospitals, 911 call centers, airlines, and public transit systems. CrowdStrike, which serves over half of Fortune 500 companies, clarified that the incident was due to a defective update—not a cyberattack or security breach.
Ongoing Efforts to Restore Service
Microsoft has yet to provide an estimated resolution time but assures users that it is working to fully restore Outlook services as quickly as possible. In the meantime, affected individuals are advised to monitor Microsoft’s service status page for updates.
