Microsoft, Minecraft, and more appear to be down, logins failing

What you need to know

• Downdetector is reporting issues affecting a number of Microsoft services.
• People are saying they can't sign into their Microsoft accounts.
• Minecraft and Xbox network are also suffering from similar outage reports.

Update September 15, 2021 at 3:20 pm ET: Outage reports appear to be subsiding, indicating the issues may be resolving for some people.

If you're having trouble signing into your Microsoft account across any of the various services you usually use, you're not alone. As reported by Downdetector, Microsoft is seemingly experiencing big issues that are extending across a whole host of its services ranging from Xbox Live (now called "Xbox network") and Minecraft to Microsoft Rewards.

The problems seem to have begun around 2 p.m. ET and are ongoing. Reports are flooding in for Microsoft services by the thousands, indicating the issue may be widespread.

Microsoft has yet to acknowledge the issue on its main Twitter pages, though Xbox Support has officially declared that an investigation is underway.

It stands to reason that if one arm of Microsoft is aware of massive, network-wide issues, the rest of the company's sectors are also aware of the issues affecting their host of sites and services. With that said, if the issue is big enough to require a formal fix from Microsoft, you'll have to wait for a formal ETA on repair operations, which could take a while (or no time at all; for those outside Microsoft, it's anyone's guess).

Outages happen every so often for reasons that typically aren't massive deals, so there's likely no reason to panic just yet. Still, who knows what the root of the issue could be. Perhaps we're on the cusp of a repeat of the 2011 PSN network outage, this time flavored for the Green Team. Odds of such an occurrence are virtually nonexistent, mind you, but who knows for sure?

This is an active story. We'll update as the situation evolves.