Is Microsoft Outlook down? Live tracking email outage

Microsoft Outlook may be suffering an outage. Reports about the email platform started popping up on the outage-tracking site Down Detector starting around 8:30 am Pacific.It peaked around 9:30 am around 6,000 reports. The outage appears to be affecting access to mailboxes, delays in sending emails or failure to send. Here's what we know so far: 2026-08-31T19:26:40.906Z Is Outlook down for you? Let us know in the comments what issues you're experiencing. 2026-08-31T19:09:19.908Z No updates from Microsoft Other than the couple tweets and the Admin Center update, we haven't seen any other updates from Microsoft.It's not clear what work is being done to resolve the outage. 2026-08-31T18:51:20.986Z Slow decline (Image credit: Down Detector) Over on Down Detector, reports have started to decline.The peak around 9:30 a.m. was around 6,000 reports. As of 11:45 a.m. Pacific, reports are closer to 4,500. I've seen some people in offices say that portions of their teams are able to access the email platform, but some of the team is still down. 2026-08-31T18:40:54.631Z Users "may experience a variety of symptoms" (Image credit: Shutterstock) If you can get in the 365 Admin Center, this is the message you should see:"Users may be unable to connect to, or experience degraded functionality with Exchange Online Users may experience a variety of symptoms related to this event, including but not limited to:- Delays, failures, or incomplete results when searching for content within Exchange Online mailboxes.- Delays or failures when sending or receiving email messages.- Authentication-related errors when accessing Exchange Online services.- Difficulties accessing or performing actions within Exchange administration experiences.- Intermittent failures affecting mailbox operations and message delivery workflows." 2026-08-31T18:34:28.571Z What issues are we seeing? (Image credit: Microsoft) Based on comments from Down Detector and X, the most common issue appears to be a failure to actually send and receive emails for those who can get in.I've seen several comments saying that the app won't even open on their computers. "Not receiving emails since about 10:45 am, then went downhill, replies stopped coming through, then emails came to a halt, and then, besides Outlook constantly freezing, now my shared work folder is no longer showing me emails and gives an error," one said.For those in businesses, it appears they can't even send messages between connected emails. 2026-08-31T18:31:03.828Z M365 Twitter account acknowledges problem We've confirmed that users may experience degraded functionality with various Exchange Online functionalities. We're reviewing service telemetry and diagnostic data to isolate the source of the issue. For more information, please see EX1464935 in the admin center.August 31, 2026 While the Microsoft 365 status page isn't showing any issues, the official Microsoft 365 Status X account did acknowledge the issue."We've confirmed that users may experience degraded functionality with various Exchange Online functionalities. We're reviewing service telemetry and diagnostic data to isolate the source of the issue. For more information, please see EX1464935 in the admin center," the post reads. 2026-08-31T18:28:54.163Z Microsoft says all systems "operational" (Image credit: Paolo Bona / Shutterstock.com / Microsoft / Future) I've checked the Microsoft 365 status page, and according to that page every Microsoft product is operational. 2026-08-31T18:26:22.757Z Multi-hour outage (Image credit: Down Detector)Reports starting appearing on Down Detector around 8:30 am Pacific but didn't peak until an hour later.As of this posting, there are more than 5,000 reports on the outage tracker and no sign of decline.