Major outage hits Microsoft Outlook; Singapore users affected
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Microsoft said it had “confirmed the issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Microsoft Outlook had a major outage on Nov 13, leaving tens of thousands unable to access email. Microsoft said it was working “aggressively” to cut the impact.
- The company first looked at reports “in the Americas”, then said the issue may affect Microsoft 365 connectivity “in any region”. Outlook and Teams were both hit.
- Microsoft blamed “elevated load across multiple regions” and paused deployments, moved traffic, and restarted servers. Downdetector showed nearly 130,000 Outlook reports at peak.
AI generated
WASHINGTON – Microsoft Outlook suffered a major outage on Nov 12, with tens of thousands of users struggling to access their email as the company said it was working “aggressively” to reduce the impact.
Microsoft initially said it was investigating outage reports “in the Americas”, but later said it had “confirmed the issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region”.
Microsoft 365 is the company’s cloud-based subscription service that includes popular applications such as Outlook and Teams.
According to outage tracker Downdetector, nearly 130,000 users reported issues with Outlook shortly after 1pm Eastern Time (2am on Nov 13, Singapore time).
Reports of outages have since declined, with about 60,000 users reporting experiencing issues with Outlook as of 3pm Eastern Time.
As at about 5.45am, there were 90 reports from Singapore.
“We’ve determined a portion of infrastructure is experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which is likely contributing to the connectivity errors,” the company wrote on X.
“We’re aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact,” it said.
“We’ve paused all deployments, we’re moving additional traffic off the affected infrastructure, and we’re restarting affected servers to return them to service.”
Thousands of users also reported issues accessing Microsoft Teams, according to Downdetector. AFP