Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook email for thousands worldwide

Microsoft is investigating a major outage affecting its Outlook email service, warning that users in any region could experience disruption. Reports of issues surged from 40,000 to over 150,000 in the US, with thousands more in the UK. The problems include error codes and frozen screens when sending emails, first reported in the Americas but spreading worldwide. Microsoft attributed the issue to elevated load on infrastructure across multiple regions and has begun redistributing connection traffic to mitigate impact. The outage affects Exchange Online mailboxes and Microsoft 365 service connectivity. UK complaints peaked at over 3,300 within 20 minutes of the first report around 5:20pm, according to Downdetector.