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Microsoft blames Outlook's wobbly weekend on 'problematic code change'

(2025/03/03)


This weekend's Microsoft 365 outage, which left unlucky subscribers unable to login and use its Outlook email service as expected, has been blamed on a "problematic code change" by the Windows giant.

The problems for Redmond, and its paying customers, [1]started at around 2100 UTC on Saturday. At least 30,000 Outlook users reported problems via DownDetector alone, and there are still intermittent issues for some users as the new week swung around. Now, according to Microsoft's status page, [2]everything's fine and should be working again.

"We've identified a potential cause of impact and have reverted the suspected code to alleviate impact. We’re monitoring telemetry to confirm recovery," the cloud titan [3]added in an alert on US state media.

[4]

"Following our reversion of the problematic code change, we’ve monitored service telemetry and worked with previously impacted users to confirm that service is restored."

[5]Payday from hell as several British banks report major outages

[6]Yes, Slack isn't working properly right now – enjoy your internet snow day

[7]Microsoft Azure faceplants in Norway, taking government services with it

There were some hiccups along the way, however. iOS users reported still being unable to login even after the promised fix was rolled out. In some cases they report having to delete the app from their handsets and reinstall it to get successful connectivity.

Then to add insult to injury on Monday, Redmond was again [8]warning of some downtime affecting Microsoft 365 services. For instance, some of those looking to enjoy start-of-the-week Teams meeting to catch up with coworkers were stymied and unable to use the system as hoped. Your mileage may vary: Some people have working access to M365, some don't.

[9]

We've asked Microsoft for clarification about the issues that have caused the bumpy service and will update as more information comes in.

That said it hasn't been the greatest of starts to the year for Microsoft on the outages front. Last month Azure [10]took a dive for Nordic customers, and in January 365 login [11]problems led to a lot of customers having a bad case of the Mondays - made worse coming after another Azure [12]outage a few days beforehand. ®

Get our [13]Tech Resources



[1] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1895950750750060583

[2] https://admin.microsoft.com/servicestatus

[3] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1895988083574681941

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z8Y0kHKFsntpXb-3spyrPwAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/28/payday_from_hell_as_several/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/26/slack_outage/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/microsoft_azure_outage_norway/

[8] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1896621905206976550

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z8Y0kHKFsntpXb-3spyrPwAAAMs&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/microsoft_azure_outage_norway/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/13/azure_m365_outage/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/10/microsoft_azure_networking_snafu/

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Well,

Omnipresent

They never once got email working, but if they want to blame it on some kid with open ai, I'll allow it.

On the bright side...

Androgynous Cow Herd

"ome of those looking to enjoy start-of-the-week Teams meeting to catch up with coworkers were stymied and unable to use the system"

So...not all bad news

Re: On the bright side...

David 132

I've had several Teams meetings with colleagues so far today (US West Coast). As you can imagine, I am overjoyed to report that Teams worked and the meetings went ahead without issue.

Still, someone at Microsoft should be keel-hauled, if only for their mangling of the defenceless English language. "Problematic"? "Potential cause of impact"? Ugh.

Re: On the bright side...

Mr Humbug

The Teams problem is Auto attendants and Call Queues. Only affects Teams telephony, meetings should be fine.

Of course if all your inbound calls go to an Auto attendant then your customers are out of luck if they want to call you.

Re: On the bright side...

cyberdemon

So Borkzilla accidentally applied an internal policy update world-wide?

It's not quite fixed

AlanSh

I was one of those who suffered. When it did come back, all my signatures had gone. Of course, I'd stored them on the server.

Yuck!

IglooDame

Yep, about 5hrs of no calls getting through on phone attendant/queue-controlled lines.

From M$, preliminary root case: "A configuration change to an auto-attendant app ID record that matches inbound calls with users in call queues."

The day has a 'Y' in it.

Linker3000

I swear that pretty much every time I check in on a Microsoft 365 outage they end up rolling back a change.

Does that say something about their test / release competency?

Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing.
-- Thomas Tusser