Check the Outlook.com Service Status

Is Microsoft aware that Outlook.com has been down for hours? Are they working on a fix? If you're having problems with Outlook.com or you think it might be down, you can check with Microsoft to be sure where the problem lies.

Using Microsoft's service status page linked below, you can find out if Microsoft is having troubles with Outlook.com, in which case it isn't your problem, or if nothing is wrong on their side, in which case you can be confident that the issue rests with your own network, web browser, or ISP.

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, under the Current status column, you see a green checkmark next to Outlook.com, it means that from Microsoft's perspective, nothing is abnormal with the Outlook.com service.

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

With Down Detector, you can even see how many users reported issues over the last 24 hours (or longer). This is great if Outlook.com is experiencing problems sporadically -- working sometimes but not loading other times. 

How to Fix Outlook.com Issues

If Outlook.com is up and running just fine on Microsoft's side, it means that there's a problem accessing it from 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, there are a few things you should try in order to get Outlook.com working again:

• Close down and reopen your web browser
• Clear the browser cache
• Disable your antivirus protection
• Flush the DNS cache
• Restart your computer

• Restart your router

If after performing those steps with your web browser, computer, and network, Outlook.com is still down, the only other assumption that can be made is that your internet service provider isn't letting you access the website. That, or they themselves are unable to access Outlook.com.

Call your ISP to check if their other subscribers are having similar issues.