Microsoft has asked iPhone users to re-enter their credentials to restore access to Outlook and Hotmail accounts through the default Mail app, following an extensive service outage that affected users worldwide on Monday.
See also: Microsoft: Serious outage for Outlook.com
Microsoft confirmed the incident yesterday morning, saying that customers were experiencing intermittent connection issues that prevented them from accessing their mailboxes via Outlook.com . In a later update, the company added that some of the affected users were also being logged out of their accounts and seeing “ too many requests ” errors .
Before addressing the outage, about 10 hours after first user reports, Microsoft attributed the Outlook.com login issues to a “ recently introduced change ” but did not share further details. On Monday night, around 7 p.m. UTC , the company announced that the health of the service had returned to normal, but added that iOS users “must” manually enter their credentials to access their accounts through the default Mail app.
Access recovery instructions for iPhone users
Microsoft has provided specific instructions for iPhone users who need to regain access to their Outlook accounts . The process involves opening the Settings app on the iPhone , navigating to Mail settings, and selecting Accounts. Users should then select the email account for which they need to re-enter the password and tap Account Settings or directly in the Password field.
See also: Microsoft Outlook is experiencing a crash
After entering the updated or correct password in the corresponding field, users should tap “Done” to save the changes and then open the Mail app to confirm that the account is syncing properly and that emails are being sent and received normally.
Microsoft , and has not revealed which regions or how many users were affected. However, the incident was described as a “service degradation,” a label typically used for incidents with a noticeable impact on users that do not bring the service down for everyone.
Recent incidents and technical context
The incident is part of a series of issues Microsoft with its email services in recent months. In March, the company experienced an Exchange Online that prevented customers from accessing mailboxes and calendars through Outlook on the web, Outlook desktop, Exchange ActiveSync , and other Exchange Online.
See also: Malicious Outlook add-in stole over 4,000 Microsoft credentials
To avoid similar issues in the future, experts recommend that users keep their iOS, Outlook , and Microsoft Authenticator to the latest versions. They also recommend using TOTP instead of push notifications in Authenticator when logging in, as well as verifying that the device's automatic time synchronization is enabled.
