Microsoft's Azure services experiencing significant outages

Microsoft's cloud service, Azure is apparently experiencing some significant outages tonight. The support page for the platform shows that the issue is affecting the storage layer across many regions, excluding the Australian data center.

Microsoft's own services are also heavily affected, with Xbox live users reporting widespread issues with the platform. Also affected by this outage are the Windows Store, press center and even apps like Tweetium, Microsoft Health, Fhotoroom and Straw, which are all dependent on Azure.

Microsoft is aware of the problem, with their Azure page stating:

Starting at 19 Nov 2014 00:52 UTC we are experiencing a connectivity issue to Azure Services including Storage, Websites and Visual Studio Online.

Hopefully this gets cleared up soon. But if you've experienced any problems with Microsoft's services or websites, sound off in the comments below.

Source: Azure Status Page (opens in new tab); via The Next Web

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl

103 Comments
  • Was playing GTA v on Xbox one and it couldn't sync my cloud save. Used my offline save and passed where it was anyway.
  • Way to go Mr. cloud Satya.
  • Every service goes down... It's nice to have a hybrid approach to balance issues
  • Xbox Video won't connect.
  • Yep, experencing problems with some websites, Visual Studio Online, and a virutral machine.
  • Now it is back and works good
  • XBM app isn't working properly!
  • That's because Xbox Music sucks anyway.
    Can't blame Azure for everything...
  • When did it ever work properly?
  • This explains why I cant sign into my church's organizational account.
  • This probably explains why my Sway preview suddenly stop working.
  • No, that's because Microsoft doesn't care about Windows.
    Can't blame Azure for everything...
  • Sway is Microsoft's service right? If so, then it is also affected.
  • Yes, Microsoft service.
  • then it's affected, too. Oh by the way, I have checked again the website, it seems that it is normal again. except for some regions that the maintenance is still undergoing.
    .
    WindowsPhoenix may don't know that Sway is a part of Microsift service, so I asked on it.
  • No, he's being funny, duh, learn much?
  • How did you get on the Sway preview?
  • Go to https://sway.com/
  • Haven't checked in a while.. Hope you clear it out soon..
  • I'll be right on it.
  • I had Netflix issues, no pins or friends visible on Xbox One. Curious that my lungs pins would be affected by this...
  • Lungs?
  • Lungs?
  • Been trying to log into Age of Empires all afternoon...:)
  • I willed this upon MS because they screwed me on my GTA V order.
  • I hear the next version of Office 365 is going to be called Office 329 so they don't end up with a pile of lawsuits...
  • If you think that companies are not vulnerable to outages, I wish you the best luck finding one.
  • Prostitution always works.
  • Glad I saw this. My buddy and I have been fiddling with our routers for the last hour because of Xbox One social connectivity issues. Now it all makes sense...
  • Having issues with MS Health, the Band Sync app won't connect, and XBL.
  • Huh, no wonder I couldn't upload anything to OneDrive. At first I thought it was the OneDrive app on my HTC 8X, but then after I tried it on a Nokia Lumia 521 and my laptop, I started to think it wasn't a client issue.
  • I had the same problem
  • Me too
  • This explains the XBL service alert.
  • Cold weather is the issue
  • I guess MSN Sports is affected by this as well...hopefully.
  • Same here, having trouble with MSN Sports for about 24 hours now.
  • There was an msn sports app update yesterday.
  • XBL still not working for me.
  • What a damn day. Server in our company crashes today and I spend all day dealing with that and then here tonight, the cloud servers we use as our stable platform go down. Ugh.
  • Fhotoroom not working
  • xbox live is out too. no Destiny :(
  • Guess this answers why on the weekend I couldn't download title updates for xb1
  • Couldn't download my workout spreadsheet. Have been losing it trying to figure out why. This makes me feel a little bit better.
  • Sway wasn't working but Office365 was...
  • No cloud first comments? ​
  • No wonder I couldn't play AoE Castle Siege!
  • Xbox video here
  • Welcome to the cloud
  • Exactly, and we are told to believe the cloud is the future.
  • Every outage brings a lesson and more resilience
  • Just spent the last hour trying to figure out why onedrive wasn't syncing. Sweet relief.....
  • Microsoft Azure or Windows Azure??
  • They removed the Windows from the name a while back.
  • Durn. Explains why Halowaypoint was down.
  • I thought I was tripping can't get into mine, kept logging me and taking forever to load (azure) kinda sux was tryna study for my beta exam next week
  • Band not syncing still, msn.com returning wacky codes... Windows central not on azure???
  • lol that is actually a good one!!!
  • It's back up for me
  • Azure add on services like clearDB are still down. Even though they are managed by third party, looks like they are too hosted on azure servers. 
  • Haha, the cloud, the cloud, the cloud. Unreliable, never private, not in your control. The cloud is the future my ass. Local USB FTW.
  • Yep. I've purchased a nas that can be accessed remotely I needed.
  • Except when your home internet connection(s) is down
  • This, plus the NSA, plus slow internet speed means no cloud for my company.
  • Local cloud has outages too
  • Onedrive is inaccessable in the US too.
  • Could not upload files to my OneDrive account
  • Can't use the halo channel. Says its unavailable
  • This sucks. Come on MS!! (to clarify, I'm not angry, just want them to do well. They get hated on enough as it is. There is probably a BGR article about this already.
  • Everything working sweet here in Australia don't worry about us guys!
  • Australia > The World. True story.
  • CLOUD first..., come on... Stop kidding.
  • Skype Qik had a few small issues, but it's all good.
  • Store still down (Germany). Update: Seems to work now.
  • Store down in the UK too, evidently.
  • I bet someone tried to hack it but it couldn't get passed the sandbox.
  • This explains why my car wasn't starting now.
  • LOL
  • I saw what you did there
  • WP Store is down for me. Croatia, region is set to US.
    EDIT: It's ok now.
  • Store won't connect from U.K.
  • I really like the Azure cloud, but it's outages are way too often and long for professional use. We once had an outage that lasted 3! days which was the reason why we switched away from Azure.
  • how is it? I'm interested to look forward to developing my webapp based on it.
  • Starting with Azure is easy, fast and cheap, but it may become expensive, when you need more features (like SSL, mobile services, more memory for your website, more computing power, etc.). TBH: I'd really like to use Azure, but outages of several hours (or even days) are definitely a no-go for professional services.
  • Down here for me(Chicago). GF is mad since I can't get it up. Back up. Ondrive works. WPstore works. The W8 store just started working
  • Store down for Qatar also.. MS, Fix it soon...
  • Cloud is a s..t!
  • *hi*
  • hello!
  • What is the use of azure?? Its smthng like windows server?? Or some other some body tell me plzz
  • Don't be lazy. Use Wikipedia.
  • Hahaha.... Ok...
  • Lol
  • Welcome to the modern world. I guess your campfire never had any outages during the stone ages.
    Just live with it! And coming to think of it, even our brains need outages in order to work properly. Maintenance during the night uc.
    Edit: The WP store seems faster!
  • Xbox live seems to be working ok now.
  • Wow asp.net still down, almost a day. This is the most serious downtime for azure which could harm their image on cloud business. Not sure what happened.
  • It made trying to play Halo MCC even worse. Couldn't start party chats or even join friends. Already had issues with it and this problem amplified them.
  • They must've applied that out-of-band server patch.
  • Killed four virtual machines and a website for me.
  • to the cloud!
  • Ah, this explains a lot of issues for me: Xbox video, WP store updates, and the like. Cloud is nifty, but its also risky because this kind of outage isn't supposed to happen if its designed correctly and I assumed they have done that. It would be nice to know what the problem was when they resolve it.
  • At the moment I'm still having problems on OneDrive. When I edit Excel files in Office Online they don't sync and the date/time of the file doesn't change.
  • Be the first to know when Azure is experiencing an outage by signing up with Azure Impact. www.AzureImpact.com