DNS - Microsoft Apologizes for Hotmail Deletions; Blames Server Problems

Microsoft (News - Alert) is now saying that it has fixed the server problem with its Windows Live Hotmail service that caused the temporary deletion of more than 17,000 user accounts, according to PC magazine.

Oops.

The problems apparently occurred on Dec. 30, 2010, when the e-mail in 17,355 accounts just disappeared. An executive at Microsoft wrote that the company had identified the “technical glitch” and restored e-mail to the affected accounts by Sunday night. The issue has since been blamed on a server problem.

“Customers impacted temporarily lost the contents of their mailbox through the course of mailbox load balancing between servers,” wrote Chris Jones, a corporate VP with Windows Live Engineering, on a company blog. “As with all incidents like this, we will fully investigate the cause and will take steps to prevent this from happening again. We're very sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused to you, our customers and partners.”

Though many users reported on Facebook (News - Alert) that their accounts had been restored by Sunday night, several still reported problems Sunday night and into Monday.

In addition to complaining via Facebook, users also accessed the Windows Live Solution Center’s online forums to complain about their missing e-mail and new messages moved to their “deleted” folder. By Sunday, January 2, the problem was starting to be reported on by the wider news media, and Microsoft’s engineers worked to fix what the company termed “a limited issue,” according to eWeek.

Though Microsoft has claimed the problem has been fully resolved, some users are still posting messages about lost e-mail today, though it's unclear whether these Tuesday complaints are isolated incidents or connected to the earlier large-scale Hotmail outage.