Microsoft Azure Outage Disrupts Xbox and Microsoft 365 Services
In a significant blow to Microsoft users, a major outage has hit Microsoft Azure, the tech giant’s cloud computing service. The disruption, which began around 12 PM ET on October 29, 2025, is impacting a range of Microsoft services that rely on Azure, including Microsoft 365 and Xbox, as reported by The Verge.
The Scope of the Outage
According to Azure’s status page, the issues started at approximately 16:00 UTC with DNS problems, leading to a degradation of service availability. Users have reported difficulties accessing the Azure Portal. Microsoft is actively working on mitigation actions and investigating the underlying cause. Updates are promised within 60 minutes or sooner.
At 12:25 PM ET, the Microsoft 365 status account on X (formerly Twitter) acknowledged reports of access issues with Microsoft 365 services and the Microsoft 365 admin center, without specifying the exact nature of the problem. Users can find more details in the Service Health Dashboard under MO1181369.
Global Impact and User Experiences
Reports of issues with Azure began spiking on DownDetector around 12 PM ET, coinciding with the reports of outages across Microsoft 365 and Xbox. The outage appears to be global, with Reddit users in the US and UK reporting their inability to access the Azure portal.
The outage highlights the critical role Azure plays in Microsoft’s ecosystem, and the widespread impact when such services go down. As Microsoft investigates the root cause and works on solutions, users and businesses alike are feeling the effects of this service disruption.
Source: The Verge
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