Microsoft experienced a widespread outage on March 19, 2025, affecting Outlook on the web services. The tech giant has attributed the issue to a problematic code change in a recent update, which left thousands of users unable to access their accounts and use essential communication tools.

The outage began early Wednesday afternoon, with users reporting difficulties logging into their accounts, accessing the Outlook website, and experiencing server connection problems.

According to DownDetector, a website that tracks service disruptions, thousands of users reported issues with Microsoft’s services within hours of the outage’s onset.

Microsoft’s 365 Status team quickly acknowledged the problem, stating on their official X (formerly Twitter) account, “We’re investigating reports of an issue affecting users’ ability to access Outlook on the web.”

We're investigating reports of an issue affecting users' ability to access Outlook on the web. For more information, see EX1036356 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) March 19, 2025

The company directed users to the admin center for more information under the incident reference number EX1036356.

As the investigation progressed, Microsoft identified the root cause of the disruption.

“We’ve identified a portion of code which is throwing an error. We’re working to revert the recent code change and reviewing data from the reproduction to determine any additional next steps,” the company stated in an update.

The tech giant then proceeded to roll back the problematic update, a strategy that has proven effective in resolving similar issues in the past.

“We identified a recent change made to a portion of Outlook on the web infrastructure, that may have resulted in impact. We’re reverting the change to remediate the issue and closely monitoring,” Microsoft reported.

We identified a recent change made to a portion of Outlook on the web infrastructure, that may have resulted in impact. We're reverting the change to remediate the issue and closely monitoring. Please see EX1036356 in the admin center for more information.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) March 19, 2025

This incident marks another in a series of outages that have affected Microsoft’s cloud-based services in recent months.

In early March, the company faced a similar situation when a code change led to disruptions in Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services.

After several hours of work, Microsoft announced that they had successfully reverted the change and confirmed that the impact was resolved for all users.

We successfully reverted the change and confirmed that the impact is resolved for all users. For more information, please refer to EX1036356 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) March 19, 2025

“We successfully reverted the change and confirmed that the impact is resolved for all users. For more information, please refer to EX1036356 in the admin center,” the company stated in their final update on the incident.

As Microsoft continues to investigate the incident, users and IT administrators are encouraged to stay informed about potential effects and report any ongoing issues through official channels.

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