Azure outage disrupts Microsoft 365, Xbox and Minecraft — Microsoft deploying fixes and rerouting traffic

Microsoft is investigating an Azure outage that has affected several consumer and enterprise services, including Microsoft 365, Xbox and Minecraft. Outage trackers showed spikes in reports around midday ET, and Microsoft’s status updates point to problems with Azure Front Door and access to the Azure Portal.

In its latest update, Microsoft said it “initiated the deployment of our ‘last known good configuration'” but ran into delays because of protective blocks put in place to protect Azure Front Door. The company is also rerouting affected traffic to alternate healthy infrastructure while it investigates. Microsoft has not provided an overall ETA for full recovery.

Quick facts

• Issue start: Reports began rising around 12:00 PM ET; Microsoft cites Azure Front Door issues starting ~16:00 UTC in earlier updates.
• Impacted services: Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint), Xbox services (sign‑ins, Game Pass) and Minecraft, among others that rely on Azure.
• Mitigation: Microsoft is rerouting traffic to alternate infrastructure and attempting to roll out a last‑known‑good configuration.
• Status channels: Monitor the Azure status page and official Microsoft 365/Xbox status feeds for updates.

Why Azure Front Door outages ripple widely

Azure Front Door is an edge service that manages global routing, load balancing and web acceleration. When it experiences issues, many dependent services can lose availability or become degraded because they rely on Front Door for traffic routing and edge delivery.

What users and admins can do

• Check official status: follow the Azure status page, Microsoft 365 Status/X and Xbox Support channels for live updates.
• For admins: avoid major configuration changes during the incident, prepare user communications about degraded service, and use backup authentication/communication routes if possible.
• For consumers: try restarting apps or devices, wait for official updates, and avoid third‑party “fix” links; consider local/workaround options if Game Pass or cloud apps are essential.
• If your organization faces critical impact, contact Microsoft support through your admin support channels for prioritized assistance.

Context

Cloud edge and routing services are common single points of failure; similar incidents at other major providers have caused broad outages recently. Microsoft’s approach — rerouting traffic and deploying a last‑known‑good configuration — aims to restore service quickly, but recovery times can vary by region and component.

We will update this post as Microsoft provides more details. For immediate information, watch the Azure status page and Microsoft’s official service feeds.

Discussion: Are you experiencing issues with Microsoft 365, Xbox or Minecraft right now? How do outages like this affect your work or entertainment plans, and what contingency measures do you want cloud providers to offer?