How to Check Outlook.com's Service Status for Issues

Outlook.com has been down for hours. Does Microsoft know? Is the company working on a fix? Using Microsoft's service status page, you can find out if Microsoft is having troubles with Outlook.com, in which case it isn't your problem. If nothing is wrong on Microsoft's side, you'll know that the issue rests with your own network, web browser, or internet service provider (ISP).

Outlook.com is Microsoft's latest rebranding of MSN Hotmail and Windows Live Hotmail. If Outlook.com is down or available, the same status applies to both MSN and Windows Live Hotmail.

How to Tell If Outlook.com Is Down

Visit the Office 365 Service Status page to see the service of Outlook.com. If, on that page, you see a green checkmark next to Outlook.com, then from Microsoft's perspective, nothing is going wrong at the moment with the Outlook.com service.

If the webpage instead displays a red or yellow symbol next to Outlook.com, Microsoft is currently experiencing an issue and is aware of the problem.

Another way to see if the Outlook.com website is down is to use a web service such as Down For Everyone Or Just Me or Down Detector. If those websites show that Outlook.com is down after entering the web address, chances are it's down for everyone or a vast majority of users, in which case you will have to wait for Microsoft to fix the issue.

With Down Detector, you can even see how many users reported issues over the last 24 hours (or longer); this feature is useful to check if Outlook.com is experiencing problems sporadically — working sometimes, but not loading other times.

What About MSN, Hotmail, and Live Mail?

Microsoft has been rebranding its email service since it was first launched in 1997 as MSN Hotmail. If your email currently ends with @msn.com, @live.com, or @hotmail.com, then your email runs on the same platform as Outlook.com. If your Hotmail account is down, check for Outlook.com's current status, as explained earlier.

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How to Fix Outlook.com Issues

If Outlook.com is up and running just fine on Microsoft's side but you can't get on, the problem is on your side, which might be due to your own computer, network, or service provider.

If you see a green checkmark on the service status page but you're still having problems with your mail, you should try a few things in order to get Outlook.com working again:

If, after performing those steps with your web browser, computer, and network, Outlook.com is still down, the only other assumption is that your internet service provider isn't letting you access the website. Call your ISP to check if other subscribers are having similar issues.

Check Outlook.com's Service Status