The Microsoft Outlook Outage: Overview, Solutions, and Preventative Steps
Summary: In the recent past, a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack caused a service interruption for Microsoft Outlook customers. They lost many hours of work because they were unable to check their emails. Continue reading to learn more about this attack and how to defend yourself from similar outages and assaults. Additionally, it discusses potential remedies you might use if you were affected by this Microsoft outage.
On June 5, 2023, hundreds of Outlook customers encountered problems with the email service that prevented them from using the Microsoft Outlook software. They tried to use the email service, but all they got were black screens with the phrase “Service Unavailable.” Error code 503 on the HTTP protocol. The service is not accessible.
According to DownDetector, a platform that tracks online outages, the problem has primarily affected Microsoft’s emailing service. However, users of the Outlook desktop application were also impacted by the outage.
Microsoft confirmed that there is a problem when attempting to access Outlook on the web via its Microsoft 365 Status account on Twitter. A “downstream impact” for Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint Online has also been discovered, according to the business. After confirming the recovery for the affected services, Microsoft 365 Status subsequently stated that the company had rolled back an upgrade and saw an improvement in the services.
After looking into the problem, Microsoft has stated in a blog post that a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) assault was to blame for the outage. This type of cyberattack involves flooding the targeted system or the area around it with internet traffic in an effort to disrupt regular activity on a service, server, or network.
The business has noticed spikes in traffic against several services, which momentarily affect availability. It was established that the DDoS attack was the work of a group called Anonymous Sudan. The business also stated that Layer 7 was the primary target of DDoS attacks, not Layer 3 or Layer 4. It was further said that the organization had strengthened Layer 7 defenses, including fine-tuning the Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) to better defend clients from similar DDoS attacks.
Similar issues with accessing files within the M365 service occurred for users in Western Europe on June 20. Microsoft discovered the issue as a challenge in a German datacenter that was not operating at ideal performance standards. For the time being, the problem has been resolved, but there is no assurance that it won’t occur again.
Some Potential Solutions
Microsoft has already determined the root of the issue and is attempting to address it once and for all. Additionally, it claimed that a problem with duplicate contact lists in Teams and Outlook was the cause of the outage. Users whose personal account device contacts were synced with Microsoft Teams were affected by this problem.
You can try the following fixes and solutions if you’ve been affected by the issue.
Removing the device’s contacts
The Microsoft-recommended fix for this issue is to remove the device contacts sub-folder. To delete this folder, follow these steps:
- On your device, go to Teams.
- Select Settings and People from your Profile by clicking on it.
- Toggle “Sync my device contacts” to stop syncing.
- The contacts on the gadget will be removed in a few days.
Make use of ContactsCleanup.exe
Microsoft issued a Windows HotFix to address the duplicate contacts issue in Outlook when it first appeared. To get rid of the Teams contacts folder, it released a tool named ContactsCleanup.exe.
You can download and launch the.exe file to use this tool. When the software asks you for access, enter your Microsoft Outlook email address and click Yes. To begin the cleanup procedure, type “1” into the Command box and hit Enter. Choose the number if you use Teams on several mobile devices. To shut the app down after the cleanup is finished, tap any key.
How can you safeguard against such outages?
Although the solutions mentioned above could be effective momentarily, the same issues might crop up again later. Unfortunately, this is Microsoft Teams’ and Outlook’s eighth outage of the year. Therefore, it’s crucial to guarantee that you are protected from such disruptions and that you can still access your data and emails. Here are some recommendations and best practices you can implement to lessen the effects of these problems and outages.
Consistent Backup
Make sure to regularly backup your Microsoft Office and Outlook data. You might lose some recent data depending on your backup schedule, but you should still have the majority of what you require to continue functioning.
Maintain Outlook updates
Microsoft occasionally provides updates and hotfixes. Keep your application up to date and pay special attention to them. To safeguard the machine against malware and ransomware attacks, you should also think about installing antivirus software.
Keep a few tools from third parties on hand
The data files may occasionally be impacted by such outages and hacks, making them inaccessible. Your mailbox data is lost if your Outlook data file, such as OST, is become inaccessible. Therefore, you should always have access to third-party programs like CubexSoft OST Converter. With the use of this program, you can retrieve mailbox items from inaccessible or orphaned OST files and save them as PST files for straightforward import into Outlook.
Bottom Line
There is no doubt that this outage has had a significant impact on many people, despite the fact that Microsoft has been evaluating the telemetric data and striving to find a lasting solution. Given that similar outages can occur in the future, it is advised to take precautions to protect yourself, such as creating frequent backups, maintaining the most recent version of your software, paying attention to critical upgrades, and having tools like CubexSoft OST to PST Converter on hand.
