Microsoft Outlook for iOS still down and out for many after 'service change'
- Reference: 1777372352
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/28/a_service_change_takes_down/
- Source link:
Artemis II astronaut: 'I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working' [1]READ MORE
Users began complaining about access on Monday morning at 0845 UTC, and, just after midday (UTC), Microsoft [2]confirmed : "We've discovered some users may experience intermittent sign‑in failures, including 'too many requests' errors, or unexpected sign‑outs."
Affected iOS users were unable to access their email after being locked out due to too many failed password attempts. Some users [3]thought they were victims of hacking, others were just confused and [4]frustrated . The good news was that it appeared only the iOS version was affected. The bad news was that Microsoft couldn't fix it quickly.
A few hours after Microsoft confirmed the malfunction came the [5]inevitable : "We've identified a recent service change that is potentially contributing to impact."
Cue a rollback to see if the problem went away. Sure enough, a few hours later, Microsoft posted, "System telemetry indicates that the service is recovering following the configuration roll back."
[6]
So, 10 points to Microsoft's engineers for fixing the problem, but minus 10,000 points for deploying a change that broke things in the first place. In fact, even those 10 points are at risk as users are continuing to [7]complain this morning that things aren't back to normal.
[8]
[9]
Microsoft's [10]status page still reports "Service degradation" for its consumer products at the time of publication. It includes the text "iOS users may experience issues accessing Outlook and Hotmail from the iOS default Mail app," even though it insists the "end time" of the outage was "Monday, April 27, 2026, at 1916 UTC" and that "its final update" at 2246 UTC last night would be the final update on the matter.
[11]Microsoft sends Outlook Lite to the great inbox in the sky as memory costs skyrocket
[12]Microsoft's Copilot strategy is just more user abuse from Redmond, says Mozilla
[13]Microsoft breaks Microsoft account sign-ins in Windows 11 with latest update
[14]Microsoft kicks new Outlook opt-out deadline down the road to 2027
The Register contacted Microsoft for comment, and to confirm it has resolved the issue despite the ongoing service status page indicators and the evidence of users' eyes, but the company did not respond.
This latest debacle, caused by a configuration change, adds to the general feeling that Microsoft's cloud is more like a tottering [15]Jenga tower than a robust solution. In this instance, it is "only" Outlook on one of the most popular mobile devices in the world that is affected.
Previous [16]configuration changes or [17]code updates took down other Microsoft services. After one incident, a Microsoft spokesperson told The Register : "We are working to enhance our detection of similar events and reduce the time needed to identify, mitigate, or prevent such impacts."
[18]
It seems like the company still has a way to go. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/02/artemis_astronauts_microsoft_outlook_broken/
[2] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/2048726578561998997
[3] https://x.com/BayAreaNative20/status/2048783381895553387
[4] https://x.com/ElMalicio/status/2048751294022557803
[5] https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/2048708708142555450
[6] 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=2afDZpRkQx_ezhEzawtJpSwAAAUA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://x.com/Modpup/status/2049018289406235096
[8] 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=44afDZpRkQx_ezhEzawtJpSwAAAUA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/saas&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33afDZpRkQx_ezhEzawtJpSwAAAUA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://status.cloud.microsoft/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/14/microsoft_outlook_lite/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/10/mozilla_microsofts_copilot_strategy/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/20/microsoft_account_not_working_have/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/06/microsoft_outlook_migration_postponed/
[15] https://www.jenga.com/about.php
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/microsoft_365_outage/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/03/microsoft_outlook_outage/
[18] 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=44afDZpRkQx_ezhEzawtJpSwAAAUA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Another day and outlook borked again
The Capita of SAAS.
Re: Another day and outlook borked again
They've always been a shit show, ever since the start. Look at Windows 95. It wasn't even a proper operating system, and yet it was sold as one.
Then look at the nonsense that goes on now with things like OneDrive randomly stopping working. "Why does it do that?" say the users. "I don't know, it's just how it is," I reply.
And what about this absolute garbage of having to restart Windows every week to keep it working properly? It would be all right if shutting it down and starting it up again fixed it, but Microsoft changed that so that shutting down doesn't really shut down—it just hibernates. So computers spend months without a reboot somehow, and they end up with problems because they haven't had a restart.
Why can't Microsoft fix this? They're the biggest software company in the world, I thought. Surely it isn't beyond their capabilities to make an OS that stays relatively stable. I've lost count of the number of things I have to deal with that are just "Microsoft does it this way, and that's why it's this way we have to put up with it." I cannot remember a time when I've thought, "Oh, this is good, they've done something clever."
and quality control? They've heard of it. I don't think they implement it. They release updates left, right, and centre to their backend systems or our apps and break things every month—every single month.
...Microsoft's cloud is more like a tottering Jenga tower than a robust solution
You do get the feeling that Microsoft aren't entirely on top of how all their services interact. I've noticed a few times when there seems to be an issue with one of their services, but you look at the service health page and there are several services having issues, but the one you're looking at isn't amongst them. Hmm.
Oh dear, think of all those 2FA auths that will fail
Yet, more and more sites/companies are insisting on 2FA where a code is sent to your email.
It is about time that Microslop is made to pay dearly for not having their service available 24/7
Re: Oh dear, think of all those 2FA auths that will fail
Yes, do that by not using Microsoft.
Re: Oh dear, think of all those 2FA auths that will fail
I wish things were that rosy.
I can alias an email for 2FA. Most companies want either an app install or a phone number, with the latter being a very useful primary key for advertisers and data brokers.
MS strikes again
So I’ve been getting a LOT of reports about problems.
1. Outlook.com and MS Exchange accounts connected to Apple Mail on iOS/iPadOS need to have their passwords re-entered. Repeatedly. In one case, five times in 125 minutes for one particular account.
2. MS Outlook app on iOS/iPadOS has similar problems with outlook.com and exchange accounts... and Gmail. And Apple's icloud.com. And Zoho mail. And Yahoo mail. You may be noticing a trend.
3. The problem with outlook.com and exchange was still there as of 06:00 Eastern time this morning. It's been two hours since last report, maybe it's finally fixed. Maybe.
4. The MS Authenticator app hiccuped a few times, but that wasn't repeatable under controlled circumstances, so may be unrelated.
We were moving from MS suites at the office anyway, this will merely accelerate the process. One of those reporting problems was in the C suite and he was most irrate that he couldn't get his email. He is looking favorably on doing a full out rip and replace of the last MS stuff on the net. Congrats, MS.
Re: MS strikes again
One of those reporting problems was in the C suite and he was most irrate that he couldn't get his email. He is looking favorably on doing a full out rip and replace of the last MS stuff on the net. Congrats, MS.
looks like c-suite spies an easy opportunity for glory
i guess the guy who got the glory for putting it in has long gone & has been repeating that glory in other institutions.
Another day and outlook borked again
"We are working to enhance our detection of similar events and reduce the time needed to identify, mitigate, or prevent such impacts."
ROFL.
Again a total lack of any testing or quality control of software modifications causes significant inconvenience to MS users.
Seriously, when will users wake up to the fact that MS are an absolute shit show?