This article is more than 1 year old
Outlook more like 'look out!' as Microsoft email decides everything is spam today
Cortana, set a reminder for when their services work. Cortana? CORTANAAA!
Updated Microsoft is having a bad time this week. First it was Teams, and now Outlook has begun treating pretty much every email as spammy nonsense.
We hope it is a touching Terry Jones tribute. We fear it might be titsuppery of the highest order.
A Register reader got in touch this morning (not through Microsoft's email service) to tell us that mail sent via Outlook.com had been misbehaving since around 10am UK time. "Doesn't matter what I send, who I send it to now, everything is being bounced with the same error – same online, same from mobile too," he said.
A swift glance at social media shows that our man isn't alone, and Microsoft has updated its status page to say: "We're having issues".
The impact listed is that "Users may be unable to log in to or send and receive emails through Outlook.com" and the gang is poking through the systems to work out what the heck might have befallen its flagship email service.
We're investigating a potential issue with Outlook where users may be unable to log in, or send and receive emails. We're reviewing systems data to determine the next troubleshooting steps. Please follow our status page to stay updated: https://t.co/dzOLUdIeK5
— Microsoft Outlook (@Outlook) February 5, 2020
The Register has contacted Microsoft for more information, but the Windows giant hasn't given us an explanation. Or maybe it has, but its "Oh god, everything is on fire, send help!" message is stuck in a spam filter somewhere. We'll update this article if more information is forthcoming.
The greatest concentration of wailing appears to be in the UK and Northern Europe, judging by Downdetector, although there are some ominous rumblings across the Atlantic.
Finally, though it appears the problem is limited to the Outlook.com service (although the Android mobile client seems to be working), spare a thought for the real victims here.
#MicrosoftOutlookDown - Oh no! Now, I'll never hear back from Ekaterina in Russia about our potential marriage!#Outlookdown
— Freejack Fan (@FreejackFan) February 5, 2020
We feel your pain. ®
Updated to add at 15:05 UTC
Aaaand it's back. A Microsoft spokesperson got in touch to tell us: "We've resolved an issue that affected some customers using the desktop client for Outlook.com email. The service is back to running as normal."