About a couple of hours ago, system admins and IT admins started reporting online (via Reddit) about issues loading Microsoft 365 Admin Center, and problems in general across Exchange Online and Outlook on the web, among other places. However, some users claim that apps too are also affected and it is not just Outlook on the web.
Soon enough, the official Microsoft 365 Status Twitter handle took to the social media platform to confirm those issues:
We"re investigating an issue with accessing Outlook on the web. Further details can be found under EX571516 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 5, 2023
A while later, Microsoft updated the status adding that it was looking into the recent updates as it suspected that a recent change made could have broken something. The company informed that admins can monitor the situation using the Admin Center issue ID EX571516:
We’re reviewing our networking systems and recent updates in an effort to identify the underlying root cause of the issue. Additional information can be found in the admin center under EX571516.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 5, 2023
As suspected, Microsoft identified an issue with a recent update. The company added that it was reverting the update to mitigate the impact of the change (via nobody554 on Reddit):
June 5, 2023 10:14 AM CDT · Quick update
We"ve identified an update which was applied around the time that impact started. We"re reverting the update to potentially mitigate impact whilst we continue to investigate the underlying cause of the issue. This quick update is designed to give the latest information on this issue.
Microsoft has now put a stop to the update deployment and is currently trying to stay on top of the situations.
We’ve halted an ongoing deployment and are monitoring services to see if that provides relief to the environment. Further information can be found in the admin center under EX571516 and MO571683.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 5, 2023
As a consequence of the issue, Microsoft says that Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, are also impacted and can be monitored with Admin Center issue ID MO571683:
We’ve identified downstream impact for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. We’re providing full impact details and updates for those services via MO571683. Updates pertaining to Exchange and Outlook on the web will continue to be provided via EX571516.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 5, 2023
We will update the post once Microsoft fixes the issue or provides further updates on the situation.
Update: 2:14 pm Eastern time: Microsoft has now confirmed that the outage has been fixed:
We’ve confirmed recovery for affected Microsoft 365 services and will continue to monitor the services to ensure performance stability. Further information can be found under EX571516 and MO571683 in the admin center.
Update 2: 4:23 Eastern time: Microsoft now says the same issue has popped up again
We"ve determined that impact associated with MO571683 and EX571516 has reoccurred and are investigating the cause. We"ll be providing updates related to this event under MO572252 in the admin center.
Update 3: Microsoft says the issue has been fixed but it will continue to monitor the situation:
We"ve confirmed that service availability has returned to healthy levels. We"ll continue to monitor service health while we analyze system logs to determine the cause of the problem. More details under MO572252 in the admin center.
Update 4: The issue was back after being seemingly resolved as Microsoft stated it was seeing a "recurrence":
We"re seeing a recurrence of the issue and a drop in service availability, so we"re applying mitigations to provide relief for the affected users, while we continue to investigate the root cause. We"ll be providing updates related to this event under MO572252 in the admin center.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 6, 2023
However, the tech giant says it was able to resolve the problem after deploying "various preemptive mitigations":
We continue to observe stable service health since we"ve applied our various preemptive mitigations and we will closely monitor the service should there be a recurrence.
— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) June 7, 2023
Some Twitter users though still say that they are unable to access certain services which means the issue may not be fully resolved yet.