Start with Health > Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center. A matching incident or advisory affecting the same workload and a broad user population is the strongest evidence of a Microsoft-side problem. If that dashboard is clear, the failure is limited to one device, office, VPN, ISP or browser, and Microsoft’s connectivity test fails only from that path, your network is more likely responsible.
Neither signal proves the cause by itself. Confirm the pattern from an independent connection, test the path to Microsoft’s network, and preserve the evidence before changing settings.
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What evidence separates a Microsoft outage from a network failure?
Use five dimensions together rather than relying on one symptom:
| Dimension | Evidence favoring Microsoft | Evidence favoring your network |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Users in several offices or tenants fail at roughly the same time. | One device, site, Wi-Fi segment or office fails. |
| Independence | Unrelated ISPs, VPNs and physical locations show the same failure. | Everyone affected shares one ISP, VPN, firewall or egress address. |
| Service specificity | The same Microsoft 365 workload or function fails broadly. | Only one browser, desktop client, device or local application fails. |
| Status evidence | Service health lists a matching incident or advisory. | The tenant and public status pages show no matching issue. |
| Path test | The Microsoft 365 connectivity test shows a Microsoft-side or broad-path problem from multiple locations. | The test fails only from one location while succeeding on a hotspot or another office. |
This is diagnostic evidence, not a mathematical proof. A new Microsoft incident can appear before a dashboard update, and a local proxy or DNS problem can make a healthy service look unavailable.
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1. Check tenant-specific Service health first
Open the authoritative view
Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Health > Service health. Microsoft describes this page as the place to see each cloud service’s current health, active incidents and advisories, issue history, and updates as an event is investigated, mitigated and resolved.
Search the list for the workload and function that users cannot reach, such as Exchange Online mail, Outlook on the web, Teams meetings or SharePoint files. Read the incident’s affected services, user scope, start time, current status and latest update. Match those details to your symptoms and the time your users began failing.
Interpret the status type
| Status type | Microsoft’s meaning | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Advisory | A known problem exists, but the service remains available; impact may be intermittent or limited in scope. | Some users or actions can fail while others continue to work. A partial outage can still explain inconsistent reports. |
| Incident | A critical issue makes a service or major function unavailable. | A broad, matching incident is strong evidence that Microsoft is responsible for the service failure. |
An advisory does not mean “no problem.” Compare its affected locations, tenants, clients and functions with your reports. Conversely, a listed event that concerns a different region or feature may be unrelated to your case.
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Record the incident number or title, the first published time and the latest update in UTC. Updates can change the affected scope while Microsoft investigates. Issue history is useful when users report a recurring symptom after an incident was marked resolved; it can show whether a similar event has already been documented.
2. Use the public status page when administrators cannot sign in
If the admin center is inaccessible because sign-in itself is failing, use Microsoft’s public service-status page. It separates business and enterprise status from consumer products. The public view is a fallback: business customers are directed to the admin center for detailed, tenant-relevant information.
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Compare the public page’s service and time window with your failure. A clear public page does not rule out a tenant-specific issue, a newly developing incident or a problem limited to your organization. Once an administrator can sign in, return to Service health for the more detailed view.
3. Compare users, locations and connections
Build an independent sample
Ask several affected and unaffected people for the same facts: workload, exact action, start time in UTC, client (browser or desktop), location, ISP and whether a VPN is enabled. Include at least one user outside the office if possible. Do not treat reports from colleagues who all use the same office gateway as independent evidence.
Broad, simultaneous failure across unrelated networks raises the likelihood of a Microsoft-side event. A failure confined to one office, VPN, ISP, device or browser raises the likelihood of a local path problem. This comparison is an inference from the pattern, not confirmation of the root cause.
Separate workload failure from general internet failure
Have an affected user try another unrelated internet service and then a second Microsoft 365 workload. If every site is slow or unreachable, suspect the local connection or ISP. If general browsing works but one Microsoft 365 workload fails, inspect service-specific routing, authentication and policy controls. If Outlook fails but Teams and SharePoint work for the same user, a workload or client issue is more plausible than a complete internet outage.
4. Run Microsoft’s network connectivity test
Microsoft’s Microsoft 365 network connectivity test measures connectivity from the device to the internet and then to Microsoft’s network. It is more useful than a generic speed test because it evaluates the path used by Microsoft 365 traffic.
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- Open the Microsoft 365 network connectivity test in a browser from the affected location.
- Run the test while connected to the same Wi-Fi, wired network, VPN and proxy configuration that produces the failure.
- Save or export the result, including the time, location and detected errors.
- Repeat the test from a known-good independent connection, such as a phone hotspot or another office. Keep the device and browser as similar as practical so the network path is the main variable.
- Compare the two results. A failure only on the office path points toward DNS, proxy, firewall, VPN, ISP or wireless connectivity. The same failure from unrelated connections is stronger evidence of a service-side or broad upstream problem.
Run the test on more than one affected device when possible. A single device can have a stale certificate, local security software or a damaged network stack that does not represent the site.
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DNS resolution
Verify that the affected device resolves the Microsoft 365 hostnames required by the failing workload. Compare results with a working device or a trusted alternate DNS resolver approved by your organization. A DNS timeout, stale response or filtering policy can prevent sign-in or load only selected services.
Proxy authentication and filtering
Inspect whether the proxy requires credentials, blocks a newly used endpoint or returns an authentication error. Web filtering can allow ordinary browsing while denying Microsoft 365 APIs, WebSocket connections or large file transfers.
Firewall and TLS inspection
Review recent firewall-policy changes and logs for denied Microsoft 365 traffic. TLS inspection can break certificate chains or modern authentication if the inspection device is outdated or its root certificate is missing from the client. Test with the organization’s approved bypass or inspection policy; do not disable security controls permanently.
VPN routing
Test with the VPN disconnected only if policy permits and the user can work safely without it. A split-tunnel change, overloaded concentrator or incorrect route can send Microsoft 365 traffic through a failing gateway. If the service works on a hotspot but not through the VPN, give the VPN team the two connectivity-test results and timestamps.
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Compare wired and wireless connections, another access point and another circuit. Check packet loss, captive-portal prompts and ISP outages. A speed test can look normal while a route to Microsoft is failing, so use the Microsoft-specific test as the deciding path check.
Clock and certificates
Confirm that the device clock, time zone and automatic time synchronization are correct. Significant clock drift can invalidate authentication tokens and certificates. Capture the exact browser or desktop-client error before clearing credentials or reinstalling software.
Use ping only as a limited check
A successful ping is not proof that Microsoft 365 is healthy. Many cloud services do not answer ICMP, and application traffic can fail while ping succeeds. Prefer the browser test, client diagnostics and firewall or proxy logs for this decision.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.6. Use a decision sequence for common situations
Service health lists a matching incident
- Confirm that the workload, region or user scope matches your symptoms.
- Record the incident title, status and UTC updates.
- Tell users the service is being investigated and avoid local changes that could obscure evidence.
- Continue monitoring for mitigation and resolution updates; test again when Microsoft reports recovery.
The dashboard is clear, but several independent sites fail
Run the connectivity test from each site and preserve results. Check the public status page, then compare the exact error and start time. If unrelated ISPs and locations show the same Microsoft 365 failure, report it through Service health even if no incident is listed; a newly developing event may not yet be posted.
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Only one office, VPN or ISP fails
Use a hotspot or another circuit to establish a control result. If the alternate path works, focus on the failing egress: DNS, proxy, firewall, TLS inspection, VPN routing, Wi-Fi or ISP reachability. Give the responsible network team the test output rather than only saying “Microsoft is down.”
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Only one device or browser fails
Test another browser and an InPrivate or private window, then compare with the desktop client. Check extensions, local security software, cached authentication, clock settings and device certificates. If other devices on the same network work, the incident is unlikely to be a site-wide outage.
7. Report an unlisted problem to Microsoft
When Service health has no matching incident, use Report an issue in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Microsoft says it reviews related service data and reports from other organizations and may add an incident or advisory if the problem originated in its service.
Include the affected workload, tenant, users and locations, UTC start and recurrence times, client and browser versions, exact error text, whether VPN or proxy was enabled, public-status observations, and connectivity-test results from both failing and working networks. Avoid sending passwords, access tokens or unrelated personal data.
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Create one record before making major configuration changes. Include:
- UTC timestamp for each test and the local time zone.
- Microsoft 365 workload, feature and exact error message.
- Tenant, office or region, affected-user count and independent locations tested.
- Client type, browser, operating-system version and whether a VPN or proxy was active.
- Service health and public-status titles or links as displayed at the time.
- Connectivity-test outputs from the affected path and the known-good path.
- Relevant DNS, proxy, firewall, TLS-inspection, VPN and ISP observations.
This packet lets Microsoft correlate a service report and lets an ISP or network team distinguish an upstream outage from a local policy failure.
Quick Recap
What not to conclude too quickly
- “The status page is green, so it must be my router.” A clear dashboard can precede publication of an incident or hide a tenant-specific problem. Run the path test and report the issue.
- “Everyone in our office is affected, so Microsoft is down.” One shared firewall, VPN or ISP can break every user at that site while Microsoft remains healthy.
- “Ping works, so the service works.” ICMP reachability does not test authentication, HTTPS, APIs, WebSockets or policy inspection.
- “A different browser fixed it, so Microsoft caused the outage.” That result points to a local browser, extension, cached credential or certificate condition.
- “An advisory means there is no outage.” Advisories can describe intermittent or limited availability that matches a real user impact.
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