Microsoft: Intermittent STOREDRV.Deliver errors on April 9th

Are you tying to send mail to users at Microsoft OLC domains like Outlook.com and are receiving rejections back that look like this:

532 5.3.2 STOREDRV.Deliver; Missing or bad mailbox Database property

If so, know that you are not alone. Microsoft seems to be rejecting some percentage of mail right know with this unique 5.3.2 error code. Talking to various email service provider (ESP) platforms, there is a lot of mail being rejected with this error message, but nowhere near 100% of mail.

So you might be seeing lots of these rejections, or very few. Hard to say; in my tiny email universe it's only affecting one of my Microsoft-using subscribers.

I'll be sure to pass info along to the right folks to let Microsoft know about this (if they don't know already) and at this time I have heard nothing to indicate a potential ETA as to when the issue might be resolved.

More information:

• I first noted the issue occurring at about 11:15 am US central time on Tuesday, April 9th.
• While this issue doesn't seem to affect all recipients -- mail to affected recipients seems to be fully blocked. I can't email my friend who is affected, every single time I try, it is rejected with 5.3.2 again.
• Down Detector shows an uptick in reports from users indicating Outlook.com issues in the past few hours. (4:10 pm US central time, April 9)
• Microsoft's service status portal reports no Outlook.com issues at this time. (4:10 pm US central time, April 9)
• This is still happening as of 9:30 am US central time on Wednesday, April 10th. I'll continue to monitor and add details for if/when the issue is resolved.

Thursday, April 11, 2024 update: I think this mostly resolved on Wednesday, April 10th. I've had a couple of people tell me that they stopped seeing bounces around 12:00 noon US central time and that matches what I saw. But I had someone else tell me that they continued to see some number of bounces with this error code even past that point. Maybe the widespread issue is over; and maybe small intermittent numbers of these rejections are to be expected? I'm not entirely sure that to make of that.