By Staff, Agencies

Microsoft’s email services were gradually returning to normal on Tuesday after a technical problem disrupted Exchange Online and several other Microsoft 365 services worldwide.

The company said mailbox connectivity had largely returned to normal after engineers implemented measures to contain the problem. However, efforts to restore full search functionality were still underway.

The disruption began Monday, with users reporting difficulties signing in, sending and receiving messages, searching their mailboxes and performing other email-related tasks.

Microsoft initially identified a recurring problem involving authentication and protocol connectivity within Exchange Online, its cloud-based email and calendar platform.

Further investigation linked the outage to a problem with a core authentication configuration used by multiple internal services supporting the Exchange Online infrastructure.

Engineers carried out manual testing on individual servers before gradually expanding the corrective measures throughout the affected systems.

Microsoft said service performance was improving as the recovery measures were implemented, but warned that some customers could continue experiencing intermittent problems and delays with email delivery.

The authentication issue also affected services outside Exchange Online. Among the platforms reported to have experienced disruptions were OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Purview and Microsoft Defender XDR.

Downdetector, an outage-monitoring website, recorded thousands of user reports during the peak of the incident. The figures represent reports submitted to the platform and therefore do not indicate the total number of people affected.

Microsoft continues to work on fully restoring all affected functions as services gradually return to normal.