Hundreds still reporting issues with Microsoft Outlook amid outage

Access to Microsoft Outlook appears to be mostly restored after thousands of users reported issues using the platform on Monday, Aug. 31. However, hundreds still seem to be having issues as of Tuesday morning, Sept. 1.

In a post on X around 11:50 p.m. ET on Aug. 31, Microsoft said that "mailbox connectivity has returned to expected service thresholds," though some search functionality had not been restored.

By 6:30 a.m. ET on Sept. 1, Microsoft said in a new post that full service is "improving" and it is "entering a period of extended monitoring to ensure a full resolution is achieved."

Timeline of Microsoft Outlook outage

Thousands of Microsoft Outlook users reported issues using the platform on Aug. 31, according to the outage tracker website Downdetector .

Downdetector began receiving reports regarding Microsoft just before noon ET on Aug. 31, with a peak of nearly 6,000 complaints around 12:24 p.m. ET. Most users, 39%, had issues receiving emails, while other complaints included disruptions to the app and logging in.

As of 6 a.m. ET on Sept. 1, Microsoft's Service Health Status page showed that "service degradation" was still occurring for Microsoft 365 offerings. Downdetector reports remained at about 500 at 9 a.m. ET Sept. 1.

In a post on X earlier on Aug. 31, Microsoft said it was working on problems with its "Exchange Online" product.

"We've confirmed that users may experience degraded functionality with various Exchange Online functionalities. We're reviewing service telemetry and diagnostic data to isolate the source of the issue," Microsoft said around 12:40 p.m. ET.

OpenAI, ChatGPT also disrupted on Aug. 31

Microsoft's disruptions were accompanied by reports of OpenAI outages, as well. According to Downdetector , reported issues peaked around 1:13 p.m. ET on Aug. 31, when nearly 1,400 users experienced challenges using the website. The majority, 90%, of those reports were about ChatGPT specifically.

The chatbot's function was restored around 4:05 p.m. ET that day, according to a post from the official ChatGPT account on X, formerly Twitter.

"And we're back! Get to Work," the company said. It had previously posted that ChatGPT wasn't "working right now" around 2:30 p.m. ET.

This story has been updated to add new information.

Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hundreds still reporting issues with Microsoft Outlook amid outage