Yahoo and AOL's email services were hit by an outage that affected thousands of users today, with most reporting log-in issues.
The issues started at around 10.50am ET / 3.50pm GMT, when a large spike in reports appeared on Downdetector. At their peak, there are over w,000 reports in the US for Yaho Mail, with users of both services in the UK also reporting email problems.
Both Yahoo and AOL have confirmed the issue on X and said they were "actively investigating it". Yahoo, which is backed by the private equity company Apollo, currently owns AOL, but Bending Spoons recently announced a deal to buy AOL.
While there was no update confirming a fix, the number of reports has now dropped significantly, suggesting the outage is now over for most. Here's what happened in an outage that had echoes of a similar incident in July...
The latest news
- Yahoo Mail and AOL email were both down for many today
- The log-in and website issues started at around 10.50am ET / 3.50pm GMT
- Both Yahoo and AOL said they were "actively investigating" the issues
AOL reports on the rise
Yahoo and AOL are currently attempting to oust Shopify for the title of 'biggest Cyber Monday' outage – with thousands reporting log-ins issues across the US and UK.
Right now, the numbers aren't as big as the peaks we saw during July's similar outage, when several thousand AOL users complained about email issues. But the reports are climbing quickly, currently sitting at just over 1,000 in the US.
Both Yahoo and AOL have acknowledged the problems many are experiencing access their mail accounts, but haven't yet estimated when a fix might be rolled out.
What have Yahoo and AOL said?
Some users may be experiencing issues accessing their Yahoo email accounts. Our team is actively investigating and will provide updates as more information becomes available.December 1, 2025
This is now a confirmed issue, with Yahoo and AOL both posting identical updates on their X accounts – they are currently part of the same company, after all.
As you can see in Yahoo's message, these problems don't appear to be affecting everyone – with the messaging of "some users" also reflected in the Downdetector numbers.
In reply to that post, one user says that "the emails I sent since around 11:15AM are showing as "queued" and won't go through". So this isn't just affecting log-ins – for many, there appears to be a server issue affecting email in general.
Some users may be experiencing issues accessing their AOL email accounts. Our team is actively investigating and will provide updates as more information becomes available.December 1, 2025
Yahoo Mail now the worst hit
Yahoo Mail is now heading towards the 2,000-report mark on Downdetector in the US, which matches the early peaks we saw during July's big outage – so it's now becoming a major problem for many.
I haven't been able to replicate the issues, logging into my Yahoo Mail account (for the first time this year) with no issues. But the frustration is understandably growing for many on social media, with many reporting that the website UI is now very slow to load...
What's causing this?
Right now, there are no known issues at big cloud providers like Google Cloud – I say this because there's also been a spike in reports on Downdetector for OpenAI, which also uses Google's computing services among others.
That means Yahoo and AOL's issues are seemingly separate from the ones affecting Shopify, which have proven a Cyber Monday nightmare for many small business owners. But there are clearly some big cloud-based disruptions today.
There have been no more updates from Yahoo or AOL on X, so we can only speculate at the causes of today's email problems...
A growing problem
These Yahoo Mail and AOL issues aren't showing any signs of going away quickly – the reports on Downdetector have risen to over 2,000 in the US, although that number has plateaued in the last 20 minutes or so.
The main issue that most are reporting is the website not loading and also being unable to log in. Some on Downdetector say the app is showing the subject line, but won't open messages, while others simply report seeing a white screen.
These issues don't appear to be affecting everyone (Yahoo Mail is thought to have around 225 million active users worldwide, surprisingly), but neither Yahoo nor AOL have confirmed what the problem is or estimated when it might be fixed.
AOL frustration is also growing
@AOL Fix your mail or at least update your consumersDecember 1, 2025
So far, AOL has sent out one update on X about its email issues today – but the patience of its users is understandably wearing a little thin, after almost three hours of issues.
Messages like the one above are becoming increasingly common on X, while another post from five minutes ago simply says "Our business can’t send out any emails. I hate AOL Mail".
If this carries on for much longer, AOL and Yahoo Mail will surely have to give their customers an update soon...
Signs of progress?
While we haven't had any more updates from Yahoo Mail or AOL, there are some positive signs on Downdetector at least – the graphs for both email services are on their way down.
At the time of writing, Yahoo Mail has dropped to around 1,400 reports in the US, while AOL is down to just over 600. The latter has dropped pretty sharply, which is usually a sign that a breakthrough has been made in the fixing process.
I'll be expecting to see a notice from Yahoo and AOL soon confirming that if these graphs keep moving in the same direction...
