Surely I'm not the only person who uses Outlook.com on a Mac?

[Mildredop]

I have an up-to-date Mac and browse the net on Chrome. My email is a Gmail account but I also have an Outlook account for "junk" emails which I've had for around a year.

But Outlook.com almost never opens - and never has. I get the Outlook logo and the "opening your mailbox" for about a minute and then it says "This site cannot be opened. outlook.live.com's server DNS cannot be found."

So I reload. And reload. And reload. And after many many attempts (often about a dozen) it opens.

Am I really the only person with this problem?

 

[shaunp]

Have you tried it in Safari? It always worked with no issue for me with Safari. Or if you don't like Safari then try Firefox, just try to eliminate any issue with Chrome first. If is the same on any browser then it could be an issue with your ISP or something on your Mac.

Download a copy of virtual box, and an Ubuntu ISO. Create a VM inside virtual box using the Ubuntu image. This way you can test to see if it is anything with the build of your Mac rather than a DNS issue. If you get the same issue on the Ubuntu VM then I'd have a word with your ISP, if the Ubuntu VM works fine then the issue is with your Mac. It should only take around half an hour to do, but should at least point you in the right direction.

 

[Bart Kela]

I have several live.com or hotmail.com junk mail addresses and connect to them via webmail or a standalone e-mail client so there's nothing wrong with Microsoft's servers. As a matter of fact, if there were problems, you'd probably see huge headlines all over the Internet, millions of people complaining, etc.

Same with with an ISP issue. If they weren't connecting their customers to Microsoft's cloud services, you'd likely be reading in on the front page of any tech news site.

So, the likely scenario is that something is misconfigured on your computer or network.

Step 1: try accessing www.live.com on your smartphone's web browser using cellular data (not your home WiFi). It'll probably work fine.
Step 2: try accessing it again on your smartphone using home WiFi. If it does not connect as quickly, you know it's either a misconfigured home network (more likely) or your ISP (far less likely). It's up to you to figure out how to resolve this. You might begin by clearing your Chrome's cookies.
Step 3: if you can access www.live.com on your smartphone via home WiFi but your computer cannot then it's clearly a computer issue. Again, it's up to you to figure out how to resolve this.

You neglected to mention if you have a desktop Mac or a notebook. If you have the latter, try using a different WiFi network: work, library, coffee shop, etc. Again, if you can connect quickly to www.live.com via a different WiFi network but not your home WiFi, that indicates either a misconfigured home network or an ISP issue.

Good luck.

 

[ideal.dreams]

I have a few accounts from when it used to be Windows Live, which I now use Outlook.com to access. My MacBook is running the latest version of macOS however I use Safari to access Outlook.com - have you tried another browser? Might just be an issue with Chrome.

 

[Weaselboy]

But Outlook.com almost never opens - and never has.

I just logged in to my outlook.com account on Safari and Chrome both and it worked fine.

Just as a test, try making a temporary, new account on your Mac and login to that account and try again. If that works, then at least you know it is something specific to your main user account.

 

[campyguy]

I use an Outlook.com to manage one of my Win 10 VMs and have had issues with Safari a few times with loading - it won't load, I'll get a message that the site doesn't exist, or the same DNS message being related by the OP. More often than not, there's been problems reported on one of the sites like downrightnow.com or downdetector.com - but I'll still have issues trying to log in. What solves it for me - every time - is clearing out the browser cache (not the cookies) and reloading the site.

Ironically, I use Gmail only for junk, but check it in my Outlook.com account and can even reply as needed in Outlook.com to the Gmail messages using the Gmail account - not what the OP is looking for but here it is:
https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...look-com-c5224df4-5885-4e79-91ba-523aa743f0ba

 

[Beachguy]

I have used it for a good while, and with zero problems on Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, and Safari.