Microsoft Outlook Outage: Login Failures and "Too Many Requests" Errors Hit Users Worldwide

What Happened

Microsoft Outlook users reported widespread login failures starting just before 5 a.m. ET on Monday. Users attempting to sign into Outlook.com encountered intermittent failures, including "too many requests" error messages. Some users were unexpectedly signed out of their accounts entirely.

Microsoft confirmed the issue on its status page and said the errors were affecting but not limited to iOS users. By 1:30 p.m. ET, outage reports on Downdetector had leveled out at around 1,300 active reports.

Live Timeline of the Outage

3:36 p.m. ET — Microsoft Tries Another Fix

Microsoft may have found the true culprit. After reviewing logs from internal reproductions, the company identified a pattern of errors pointing to a recent backend configuration change. Microsoft completed a rollback of this configuration change and is now monitoring whether it resolves the issue.

"After reviewing the logs collected from internal reproductions we've found a pattern of errors that point to a recent backend configuration change that may be causing impact. We've completed a roll back of this configuration change."

2:49 p.m. ET — First Rollback Did Not Fix the Issue

Bad news. Microsoft confirmed that the initial service update rollback did not resolve the Outlook issue. The company said it's continuing to investigate the source of the error messages.

"The rollback that was completed does not appear to have provided the intended impact relief. We're continuing to look at internal reproductions of the impact to find potential next steps for mitigation."

~2:00 p.m. ET — Copilot Issues Are Separate

Microsoft's Copilot AI assistant also experienced problems, but this is an entirely separate issue. Microsoft identified that a portion of its Copilot infrastructure in North America was consuming high resources and is rebalancing traffic to fix it. Admin users can track this under code CP1293219.

1:30 p.m. ET — Service Change Identified, Rollback Initiated

Microsoft identified a recent service change potentially contributing to the issue and began testing a rollback. The company was also investigating unusual error patterns observed in parallel.

11:19 a.m. ET — Still Trying to Isolate the Source

Microsoft said it was running tests to reproduce the impact in its internal environment to obtain additional logging and isolate the source of the unexpected error messages.

~10:00 a.m. ET — First Revert Didn't Help

An earlier attempt to revert a recently introduced update did not alleviate the login issues. Microsoft continued investigating the unexpected increase in error rates affecting two separate error scenarios.

Before 5:00 a.m. ET — Reports Begin

Users started reporting sign-in failures on Downdetector and social media. Microsoft acknowledged the issue on its status page shortly after.

What's Affected (and What's Not)

The Ripple Effect

The outage went beyond just missing work emails. Users on the r/Outlook subreddit (which has 202,000 weekly visitors) reported that two-factor authentication lockouts were cascading into other accounts and applications — including Xbox accounts and backup email services.

Some long-time users who have maintained the same Hotmail address for over 20 years said they were considering switching to a different email provider entirely.

What You Can Do Right Now

• Check Microsoft's status page at status.office.com for real-time updates
• Follow @MSFT365Status on X for the latest announcements
• Try the web version — if the mobile app isn't working, try accessing Outlook through a desktop browser
• Don't repeatedly retry logins — this can trigger additional "too many requests" errors
• Use Teams for urgent communication — it's fully operational and unaffected
• Check your 2FA dependencies — if you use Outlook for two-factor authentication on other services, have backup codes ready

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't I log into Outlook today?

Microsoft confirmed that Outlook.com users are experiencing intermittent sign-in failures, including "too many requests" errors. The issue is linked to a recent backend configuration change that Microsoft is working to resolve.

Is the Outlook outage affecting mobile apps?

Yes. Microsoft confirmed the errors are affecting but not limited to iOS users. Many reports on Downdetector specifically mention the Outlook iOS app.

Is Microsoft Teams also down?

No. Microsoft Teams is fully operational according to Microsoft's product status page. The outage is specific to Outlook sign-in services.

Is Microsoft Copilot affected by the Outlook outage?

Copilot is experiencing a separate issue. Microsoft identified that a portion of its Copilot infrastructure in North America is using high resources, and the company is rebalancing traffic to fix it. This is unrelated to the Outlook login errors.

When will the Outlook outage be fixed?

Microsoft is actively investigating. After an initial rollback failed, the company identified a backend configuration change as the likely cause and has rolled it back. They are monitoring whether this resolves the issue.