Microsoft Outlook down today? Downdetector reports surge as North and South American users face email access problems

There have been numerous reports of email access issues among Microsoft Outlook users on Thursday, with many users facing trouble logging into their email accounts and sending and receiving emails. The service outage is not limited to just the email service but has also extended to other services offered by Microsoft 365.

According to a statement issued by Microsoft, the company is investigating connectivity issues related to Exchange Online, which is responsible for powering the email service of Outlook.

Also Read | Microsoft Outlook outage today: Latest update, what caused email disruption and what users should do


The tech giant confirmed on social media that users in the Americas were facing trouble accessing their email accounts using various connections.

"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," it wrote in a post on X.


The failure has gained considerable traction through the social media space and outage tracking websites, with people complaining about difficulties like failed logins and inaccessible email addresses.

"We've determined a portion of infrastructure is experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which is likely contributing to the connectivity errors. We're providing more information under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as," Microsoft said in another X update.

As per an article in Reuters, over 130,000 instances of Outlook-related issues have been filed by 1:27 p.m. Eastern time.

The complaints have been made by people trying to access their professional and personal emails. Microsoft has also stated that the connectivity problem may not be restricted to North America.

Microsoft Outlook outage: Which other services have been affected?

It was not only Outlook that was impacted, as even Microsoft 365 customers faced issues with other applications as well.

According to Associated Press reporting, Downdetector collected more than 46,000 complaints regarding Microsoft 365 and around 3,000 complaints about Microsoft Teams.

Additionally, some other services, such as SharePoint Online, Microsoft Copilot 365 and Microsoft Defender XDR, were listed as possibly impacted.

Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that all users had issues with all these apps.

What caused the Microsoft Outlook outage?

Microsoft clarified that the elevated workload affecting its infrastructure was not caused by an increase in user traffic. Instead, several servers had unexpectedly become unavailable, putting additional pressure on the remaining systems and contributing to the connectivity problems.

In an update shared on X, the company said its investigation had identified the server unavailability as the reason behind the increased workload. Microsoft added that it was working to safely bring the affected servers back into service.

The company also directed users and administrators to check incidents EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center for further information. Those unable to access the Admin Center were advised to visit Microsoft's official service-status website.

As part of its recovery efforts, Microsoft also began redistributing connection traffic across its wider global infrastructure to balance the workload and reduce pressure on the affected systems.

"We've begun redistributing connection traffic across our broader worldwide infrastructure to help balance the load," the company said in a separate update.

However, Microsoft had not yet identified the underlying reason why several servers became unexpectedly unavailable. Its investigation into the infrastructure disruption and efforts to restore the affected systems were ongoing in the latest updates.