Microsoft admits Outlook crashes, says impact 'mitigated'
- Reference: 1728590243
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/10/microsoft_outlook_outage/
- Source link:
"We're investigating an issue in which users in Europe may be experiencing crashing, not receiving emails or observing high memory usage when using the Outlook client," Redmond [1]warned .
"We're analyzing data from customers experiencing crashes and high memory usage when using the New Outlook desktop app. We're reviewing service telemetry and reproducing the issue internally to develop a mitigation plan."
[2]
So far, there is no word on Microsoft's plan, but social media reports suggest the US East Coast at least is suffering similar problems. Downdetector [3]indicates the issue appears to be spreading.
[4]
[5]
"It's been spreading across the country like the common cold now, and I can't seem to figure out what is causing it," [6]reported one user. "There have been no changes to the environment and no updates to the Windows desktops that are having this issue."
Microsoft's engineers are working on the issue and trying to find out what the problem is. It's not a good look for a software giant's main email system.
[7]
"We're focused on isolating the source of a potential memory management issue which may be responsible for causing impact," Microsoft [8]stated . "We're working with organizations and are replicating the issue internally to develop a mitigation. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center."
[9]Bank of America app glitch zeroes out people's balances
[10]Major ISP bungles settings, causing Microsoft 365, Azure outage
[11]Users call on Microsoft to update Outlook's friendly name feature
[12]The end of classic Outlook for Windows is coming. Are you ready?
"We’re working on a potential solution and are preparing to apply a targeted configuration update that we suspect will alleviate the impact," it [13]said .
Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register , "We're investigating an issue currently impacting a limited number of users accessing some of our services. For more information, please check Microsoft 365 Status on X."
Just before publishing this story, Microsoft says, it's implemented a fix, with the advice essentially boiling down to turning Outlook off and back on again.
"We've applied a config change and telemetry confirmed we've mitigated impact," Redmond [14]said . "Users should refresh/restart their Outlook sessions." ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1844368693003698535
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZwhOiYV9VxBt4bCF0GpodAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://downdetector.com/status/microsoft-365/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZwhOiYV9VxBt4bCF0GpodAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZwhOiYV9VxBt4bCF0GpodAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://old.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftOutlook/comments/1fzt7ek/ms_outlook_not_the_new_outlook_all_of_a_sudden/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZwhOiYV9VxBt4bCF0GpodAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1844410409693966724
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/02/bank_of_america_outage/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/12/att_microsoft_365_outage/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/06/users_call_for_microsoft_to/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/13/the_end_of_classic_outlook/
[13] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1844429360909988135
[14] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/1844437962857062544
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Hardly a surprise
Fixing anything on a Friday is just asking for a problem.
But that only really applies to IT support.
Intternationalisation!
It's anglo-bias, I tell you!
It's well known that some languages, like Spanish or German are more verbose than English. Having not tested for that those longer emails now cause Outlook to run out of memory!
“Local app”
A locally installed desktop app starts crashing all over the world without any updates being installed. It’s almost like Microsoft have given themselves an obscene amount of control over people’s desktops and can apply a change in the cloud that crashes ‘local’ apps.
I’ve been refusing monthly cloud subscriptions and sticking to local apps and will do that for as long as possible. It’s beginning to look like that won’t matter soon. My local MS app will just be a thin client for the cloud app. Customer wants/needs and good sense won’t change that now. Dammit.
Outlook is currently a support nightmare
First we had Outlook (the email service) completing its migration from simple authentication to OAuth2. Plenty of support calls.
Then, the Windows Mail, Calendar and People apps were forcefully migrated to New Outlook (ie, enter your password and re-sync... very little in the way of proper migration). Lots more support calls, and some missing data.
Now the New Outlook stops, which appears to be a window to a web interface, with reliance on an Internet connection to Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft's AI and Microsoft's Ad services.
"it's not a good look" is definitely an understatement for business users. How much you want to bet their AI "enhancement" is the root cause?
Hardly a surprise
I'd be grateful if they could hold off on fixing this until Friday evening, it would greatly improve my productivity for the day.