Microsoft Online Services Hit With Another Outage

Microsoft’s online services are currently experiencing a disruption with everything from Xbox Live to its app store are either offline or are not operating as expected. Checking around on Twitter, many users are reporting issues of logging in or not being able to access their content on services like OneDrive or Outlook.com

The Xbox status dashboard acknowledges that there is a problem with its service and it’s clear that the impact is far greater than just Xbox Live. I am able to login to Outlook and OneDrive but OneDrive tells me that my files are unavailable but Outlook, at this time, is not impacted; others are saying that they are experiencing issues with Outlook.

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This is the second such outage in the past few weeks. Previously, Microsoft’s authentication layer was broken which resulted in not allowing anyone to sign into their accounts. But, during that outage, if you were signed in, your experience was not impacted.

This time around, the issue is more profound as users who are already logged in are being impacted. At this time, other than the Xbox Live dashboard, there is no clear indication what other services are offline or disrupted; it’s likely safe to assume that anything involving your MSA account may not operate as expected.

While outages are inevitable for cloud services, two in one month is trend that Microsoft would like to avoid. Obviously, the company needs to make sure these frequent outages do not tarnish its cloud reputation as the company cannot afford to have competitors like Amazon and Google take away from Azure’s growth.

[Update 3:03 PM ET] Microsoft has acknowledged issues with Outlook.com and Onedrive, saying “User Impact: Users may be intermittently unable to sign in to the service” and that “In some cases, after signing in to the service, users are then unable to access their OneDrive content. As the issue is intermittent in nature, users may be able to reload the page or make another attempt successfully.” The company is currently looking into the issue, will update this post as we learn more.

[Update 3:25 PM ET] Microsoft services appear to be back online once again.

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Conversation 19 comments

  • markbyrn

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2017 - 2:24 pm

    <p>I can't get into Outlook at all</p>

  • ABianucci

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2017 - 2:24 pm

    <p>Killing me… can't sync OneNote either…. So for me, OneNote, OnDrive at this point on the personal side.</p>

  • Jaxidian

    21 March, 2017 - 2:33 pm

    <p>Fortunately my MSA-authenticated Azure Portal logins are continuing to work. No way I'm logging out though!</p>

  • SDreamer

    21 March, 2017 - 2:39 pm

    <p>"This is why I don't use a Microsoft account to log in" xD /sarcasm</p><p>Definitely a boon, but reminds me of something Paul was tweeted last time this happened. Since Windows lets you log in with the password it last had when it was still connected so you can still access it offline.</p>

  • jbuccola

    21 March, 2017 - 2:40 pm

    <p>I love getting hit with this stuff when setting up a new device.</p><p><br></p><p>Serious buzzkill.</p>

    • MCimino

      Premium Member
      21 March, 2017 - 3:25 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#92219">In reply to jbuccola:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>This is exactly what I am going through today too. Very frustrating. We have sent you an email. Please verify account. – Nooooooo!!!!</p>

    • Narg

      22 March, 2017 - 10:52 am

      <blockquote><a href="#92219"><em>In reply to jbuccola:</em></a></blockquote><p>LOL, yeah I figured out a long time ago, give new tech the day before Christmas.&nbsp; Because on Christmas day, you aren't logging into anything.&nbsp; :)</p>

  • PcGuy8088

    21 March, 2017 - 2:47 pm

    <h1>This site can’t be reached</h1><p><strong>login.live.com</strong>&nbsp;took too long to respond.</p><p><br></p><p>Says it all. Perhaps the cold weather here in The Great White North froze the bits.</p>

  • Martin Pelletier

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2017 - 2:48 pm

    <p>Microsoft hired the guy from Amazon? :)</p>

  • Polycrastinator

    21 March, 2017 - 2:51 pm

    <p>I've been having issues with Office 365 today, which is a big deal: I needed to export some mailboxes for a client, and I can't (or couldn't earlier, I guess I haven't tried in a couple of hours).</p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2017 - 2:54 pm

    <p>Tried to access my budget spreadsheet with Excel Mobile. Bam! Denied. 🙁 </p>

  • bassoprofundo

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2017 - 3:24 pm

    <p>Argh… I've got two new boxes sitting at home ready to be set up tonight. Hope they get this sorted out before then…</p>

  • JerryH

    Premium Member
    21 March, 2017 - 3:53 pm

    <p>Affected more services than mentioned certainly. At least for a short time I was unable to login to connect.microsoft.com (where the business TAP side of the Windows Insider Program gets info and builds) as the login redirect via live would just hang. It seemed like it was up again within about 20 minutes though.</p>

  • James Wilson

    21 March, 2017 - 4:06 pm
  • Waethorn

    21 March, 2017 - 4:43 pm

    <p>#russianhackers</p><p><br></p><p>(about as much as #hillaryismypresident, /s)</p>

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