• by Ray Schultz , September 19, 2017

Microsoft Outlook has returned to service after a day-long outage in parts of Europe, but some users apparently lost messages.

“Everything is up and running,” Microsoft reported today in the most recent update to its status page.

The problem, which began on Monday, affected Outlook accounts, which also include Hotmail and Windows Live Hotmail accounts.  

Microsoft continues:

“User Impact: Users located in Europe may have been unable to send or receive email messages.

“More info: Additionally, users may have been unable to access their outlook.com email accounts. Users may have also observed that sent emails remained in the Drafts folder.

“Final status: We've verified that new mails are being sent and received as expected, and the previous queue has returned to normal. A very small number of messages sent during the incident may be delivered over the next few hours as the last remaining messages are processed.”

Microsoft reported the start time as 7:20 a.m. UTC on Monday, and the end time at 1:25 a.m. on Tuesday.

The service interruption prompted thousands of social media complaints, The Evening Telegram reports. However, other accounts put the number in the hundreds.

Outlook message senders were informed on Tuesday that “something went wrong and we have’t been able to send your message yet,” the Evening Telegram continues.

On Monday, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “Intermittent connectivity is affecting customers in some European countries, which we are working to resolve as soon as possible,” according to Express.

BBC adds that Microsoft was using an "alternate infrastructure" while service was being restored.