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Hotmail down: Outlook users unable to access emails

Aatif Sulleyman

Monday 18 September 2017 18:11 BST

Outlook is down, leaving users unable to access their emails.

Issues are affecting users in the UK and all over Europe, according to DownDetector, which says problems first appeared this morning.

Some people are also complaining about being unable to login to the site, while others say they can receive messages, but when they try to send them they end up stuck in the Drafts folder.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Show all 11

1/1111 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Labs

Labs is a testing ground for a number of experimental Gmail features that aren’t quite ready to be rolled out properly. Most of them are really useful, and it’s worth checking them out and enabling the ones you like by going to Settings and hitting the Labs tab. At the time of writing, one of them shows you how many unread messages you have in the Gmail tab on your browser, and another lets you add handy shortcut buttons. The catch is that they can disappear at any moment.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Unsend messages

You can unsend sent messages with Gmail, and you don’t even need an add-on. Just go to Settings and check the Enable Undo Send option. You can choose between five, 10, 20 and 30 seconds as your cancellation period. After it’s over, there’s no getting that message back.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Colourful stars

The Starred messages feature is already really handy, but you can make it even better. In Settings, scroll down to the Stars section and choose which colour you want to use - you can switch the default golden one for orange, red, purple, blue or green. In fact, you don’t need to use a star at all. Boxes with icons are also available, and you can have lots of them in use at once. It may seem like little more than visual fun, but you can actually make your life easier by using different colours or icons for different types of message, as you can search for each of them individually.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Shortcuts

You can see the entire list of Gmail’s shortcuts by going to Settings and scrolling down to the Keyboard Shortcuts section. Learn More will take you to a page with all of the shortcuts on Android, iOS and the desktop. Or, if you’re already on a computer, just open Gmail and hit Shift and /.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Hide categories

Gmail automatically sorts your messages into distinct categories, including Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums. However, you can hide the ones you don’t need by going to Settings, hitting the Labels tab and scrolling down to Categories.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Search properly

Don’t be fooled by Gmail’s simple-looking search bar. Click the down arrow just left of the search button to access a load of additional options that make it much easier to sort through your messages.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Add other accounts

If you use Gmail and other email providers, like Yahoo, Exchange and Outlook, you can make your life easier by managing all of your messages from one place. In the app, tap the menu button, add an account by hitting the down arrow and pick the type of account you want to add.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Smart Replies

You can reply to messages quickly by selecting one of three “smart reply” options Gmail offers. It uses machine learning technology to formulate them, to ensure they’re applicable to the message you’re responding to and sound like something you’d write.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Mute threads

Like group conversations on WhatsApp, email threads can get annoying. Fortunately, you can mute them. Open the message, click the More button above it and select Mute.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Block annoying people

You can block users you don’t want to hear from anymore by opening an email you’ve received from them, hitting the down arrow next to the reply button (in the top right-hand corner of the message) and selecting Block.

11 useful Gmail features you didn't know existed

Inbox

If you’re feeling inquisitive, it’s worth trying out Google’s Inbox (by Gmail) app. It takes a slightly different approach to Gmail, focusing on de-cluttering your inbox.

Microsoft is aware of the problem, and has used the @Outlook Twitter account to say it's working on a fix.

"We've identified that a subset of infrastructure was unable to process requests as expected, which caused general service availability to drop unexpectedly," the company's health site says.

"We've redirected requests to alternate infrastructure to restore service, and we're monitoring the environment while connectivity recovers. Additionally, we're investigating an issue in which users are unable to send email messages."

The company says it's hoping for a "quick resolution".

Outlook users have taken to Twitter to complain about the outage, with many saying they're unable to hit work deadlines because of it.

Others are joking about being shocked that so many people still use Outlook and Hotmail email addresses, which are less popular than – and widely considered to be inferior to – Gmail.

At the time of writing, Microsoft says, "We're continuing to investigate network routes between subcomponents of the outlook.com service to determine the source of the issue and to identify our next troubleshooting steps."

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