A large-scale Microsoft Outlook outage has left millions of users unable to access their email accounts today, July 10, 2025. The disruption is affecting Outlook Web, desktop apps, and mobile clients. Microsoft has confirmed the outage and says their teams are investigating the cause.
In this post, we’ll break down what’s happening, which services are affected, and when users can expect email access to be restored.
⚠️ What Happened to Outlook?
Starting around 7 AM UTC on July 10, thousands of users began reporting issues with:
- Logging into Outlook.com
- Sending and receiving emails
- Accessing Microsoft 365 services like Exchange and Teams
The issue appears to be widespread, with reports coming from North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. Users trying to log in are met with error messages such as:
- “Something went wrong”
- “503 Service Unavailable”
- “Cannot connect to server”
📉 Service Status Confirmed by Microsoft
Microsoft acknowledged the outage via its Microsoft 365 Status account on X (formerly Twitter), stating:
“We’re investigating an issue affecting Outlook services. We’ve identified a potential cause and are working on a fix. Impacted users may experience intermittent issues when accessing Outlook.”
The issue is being tracked under the incident ID: EX716431.
🌐 What Services Are Affected?
While Outlook is the primary service impacted, users also reported issues with:
- Microsoft Teams (notifications and calendar sync errors)
- Exchange Online
- Calendar and Contacts
- Outlook mobile app (iOS & Android)
Some enterprise clients reported email delivery delays, affecting business communication globally.
📊 Outage Heatmap
According to real-time outage trackers like DownDetector, the most affected regions include:
- United States (East & West Coasts)
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- India
- Canada
- Australia
This suggests a global infrastructure-level issue, possibly tied to Microsoft’s cloud services or backend authentication servers.
🛠️ What Is Microsoft Doing to Fix It?
Microsoft has confirmed that its engineering teams are actively investigating and have begun rolling out mitigation steps. Early reports suggest that the issue may be linked to a backend update or DNS misconfiguration, although this has not been officially confirmed.
Microsoft is posting hourly updates through its admin center and social channels. A full root cause analysis will be released after service restoration.
📅 When Will Outlook Be Back?
As of the latest update, there is no official ETA for complete service restoration. Some users report intermittent access, while others remain fully offline.
Microsoft says:
“We’re making progress in recovery efforts, but users may continue to experience degraded performance or limited access.”
Users are advised to monitor Microsoft 365 Status on Twitter/X and the Microsoft Admin Center for real-time updates.
📌 What Can You Do in the Meantime?
Here are a few quick tips while waiting for the issue to be resolved:
- Try Logging in from Different Devices/Browsers
Sometimes, mobile access may work when desktop fails. - Use Offline Mode
If your Outlook desktop app was previously synced, you may be able to read recent emails offline. - Switch to Temporary Alternatives
Use Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or your company’s backup communication tools like Slack or Zoom if available. - Notify Your Contacts
Use social media or SMS to let clients and colleagues know that your Outlook is currently down.
🔄 Previous Outlook Outages
This is not the first time Outlook has experienced major downtime. Similar incidents occurred in:
- March 2023 – Authentication failure across Microsoft 365
- October 2022 – Global server outage impacting Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive
These recurring issues are raising concerns about Microsoft’s cloud service reliability, especially for business-critical operations.
🧠 Final Thoughts
Microsoft Outlook’s global outage on July 10, 2025, is a major disruption in today’s always-connected world. While Microsoft is working hard to fix the issue, users around the world are left without access to one of the most essential email platforms.
If you rely on Outlook for professional communication, it’s wise to have alternative email or communication platforms in place during these kinds of outages.