TLDR: If Outreach isn't working, check status.outreach.io and apistatuscheck.com/down/outreach first. Common symptoms include sequences not firing, emails stuck in queue, and CRM sync failures. Most issues resolve within 1-2 hours — pause critical sequences to prevent duplicate sends on recovery.

Is Outreach Down? How to Check and What to Do

Outreach is the leading sales engagement platform, powering email sequences, call tasks, and pipeline management for thousands of sales teams. When it goes down, the impact is immediate — sequences stop, emails queue up, and your sales team loses momentum. With 210+ monthly searches for "is Outreach down," outages are frequent enough that every sales leader needs a playbook.

The tricky part: Outreach failures often look like local issues (emails not sending, sync errors) when they're actually platform-wide problems.

How to Check if Outreach is Actually Down

Step 1: Check Official Status

Outreach Status Page: status.outreach.io

The status page breaks down components:

• Web Application (the main UI)
• Email Delivery (sequence emails, manual sends)
• API (integrations, webhooks)
• Salesforce Sync (CRM data flow)
• Calling (built-in dialer)
• Analytics & Reporting

Step 2: Check Real-Time Monitoring

API Status Check: apistatuscheck.com/down/outreach

Independent monitoring with outage history and instant alerts. Know about Outreach issues before your sales team reports them.

Step 3: Quick Diagnostic

Before escalating:

1. Try loading app.outreach.io in an incognito window
2. Check if emails are queued (Outreach → Settings → Email → Delivery Status)
3. Try sending a manual email (not sequence) — does it go through?
4. Check Salesforce sync status in Settings → Integrations

If the app loads but emails don't send, it's likely an email delivery issue specifically.

Common Outreach Error Messages

"Email delivery delayed"

Meaning: Outreach accepted the email but hasn't sent it yet. Usually indicates email infrastructure backlog. Fix: Wait 15-30 minutes. If still delayed, check status.outreach.io for email delivery issues. Don't resend — you'll create duplicates when the queue clears.

"Salesforce sync failed" or "Sync error"

Meaning: Data isn't flowing between Outreach and Salesforce. Fix: Check if Salesforce itself is up (status.salesforce.com). Re-authenticate the integration in Settings → Integrations → Salesforce. If both services are up, check field mapping for recent Salesforce schema changes.

"Rate limit exceeded" (API)

Meaning: You've hit Outreach's API rate limits (typically 10,000 requests per hour). Fix: Reduce API call frequency. Implement exponential backoff. Check if a runaway integration is hammering the API.

"Sequence paused — delivery issue"

Meaning: Outreach automatically paused your sequence due to high bounce rates or delivery problems. Fix: Review bounce reasons in the sequence analytics. Clean your prospect list. Check email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for your sending domain.

"Unable to connect" or login failures

Meaning: Authentication service is down or your SSO provider has issues. Fix: Check if your SSO provider (Okta, Azure AD, etc.) is operational. Try clearing browser cookies for outreach.io. If using SSO, try the direct login URL as a test.

Troubleshooting Steps

1. Check Your Email Health

Even when Outreach is working, email delivery can fail:

• SPF/DKIM/DMARC — verify your domain authentication at mail-tester.com
• Sending limits — Gmail: 500/day, Google Workspace: 2,000/day, Microsoft 365: 10,000/day
• Warm-up status — new mailboxes need gradual volume increases

2. Verify Integrations

Outreach connects to many services. Check each:

• Email provider (Gmail, Microsoft 365) — is OAuth token valid?
• CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot) — is sync authenticated?
• Calendar — are meeting links generating correctly?
• Dialer — is telephony provider operational?

3. Test with Minimal Setup

Send a single manual email to yourself from Outreach:

• If it works → the issue is sequence-specific (check sequence settings, throttling, prospect data)
• If it fails → platform or email provider issue

4. Check Browser and Network

• Clear outreach.io cookies and cache
• Disable browser extensions (ad blockers can interfere)
• Try a different browser or incognito mode
• Check if corporate VPN/firewall blocks any Outreach domains

What to Do During Outreach Downtime

Protect Your Pipeline

Immediately:

1. Pause active sequences — prevents weird behavior when service recovers (duplicate sends, out-of-order steps)
2. Note which prospects were mid-sequence — export current sequence state if possible
3. Warn your sales team — a quick Slack message prevents 20 confused support tickets

Don't:

• Don't manually send sequence emails from Gmail — you'll create duplicates
• Don't delete and recreate sequences — you'll lose analytics and prospect progress
• Don't blame deliverability when it's a platform outage

Alternative Tools During Downtime

For urgent outreach that can't wait:

• Gmail/Outlook directly — for critical 1:1 emails (track manually)
• Apollo.io — alternative sequencing platform
• Salesloft — direct Outreach competitor
• Instantly.ai — cold email platform with good deliverability
• Woodpecker — simpler alternative for smaller teams

Keep Selling

• Phone calls — use your cell or a separate dialer (Dialpad, Aircall)
• LinkedIn — manual outreach via InMail or connection requests
• Prepare sequences — draft new sequences in Google Docs, ready to load when Outreach recovers

Monitor for Recovery

• Subscribe to alerts at apistatuscheck.com/down/outreach
• Watch status.outreach.io for "resolved" updates
• Check Outreach's Twitter @outaborpich for announcements

Historical Outage Patterns

Outreach outages typically cluster around:

1. Email delivery delays — the most common issue. Sequences slow down or emails queue for hours. Usually resolves within 1-2 hours. Often worse during peak sending times (Tuesday-Thursday, 8-11 AM ET).

2. Salesforce sync failures — CRM data stops flowing. Can cascade into stale data in sequences. Usually resolves within 2-4 hours. Often triggered by Salesforce maintenance windows.

3. Full platform outages — rare but impactful. The app becomes inaccessible. Typically resolved within 1-4 hours with incident communication on the status page.

4. API instability — affects integrations and custom workflows. Usually the first thing to break and the last to recover during broader incidents.

Prevention Tips

• Don't put all prospects in one sequence — spread across multiple sequences so a glitch doesn't affect your entire pipeline
• Export prospect lists weekly — have a backup outside Outreach
• Set up delivery monitoring — track bounce rates and response rates to catch issues early
• Maintain alternative outreach channels — LinkedIn, phone, direct email as backup
• Alert your team early — set up apistatuscheck.com alerts for your sales ops channel

Stay Informed

Monitor Outreach status in real-time at apistatuscheck.com/down/outreach. Get instant outage alerts so your sales team is never caught off guard during peak selling hours.