Widespread Microsoft Service Outage Affects Users Globally
Microsoft faces significant disruptions affecting Outlook, Teams, and more, with users reporting issues throughout the day.
On Thursday, Microsoft experienced a widespread outage impacting several key services, including Outlook, Teams, and Copilot. Users around the world began to encounter disruptions, prompting a flurry of reports on Downdetector, as the outage's extent became apparent.
Scope of the Disruption
Reports of service issues started early in the day, with Outlook outages peaking at around 83,000 by 1 p.m. ET. Although the number decreased slightly to just under 75,000 by mid-afternoon, it highlighted the scale of the problem. Teams users also reported complications, with numbers dropping below 26,000 as the day progressed. Copilot, Microsoft's AI-driven assistance tool, saw reports fall to under 2,000.
Microsoft's Acknowledgment and Initial Response
Microsoft took to social media at 10:40 a.m. ET to inform users that they were aware of the issues and investigating them. This announcement was soon followed by a claim at noon that the problems had been resolved. However, frustrations persisted, with users still reporting outages across Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive as late as 1:43 p.m. ET.
As users attempted to check the service status, they faced difficulties accessing Microsoft's status page, which was also down for a period. By 3:05 p.m. ET, some users regained access to the page and were able to see service updates.
User Experiences and Feedback
Among those impacted was an attorney from a law firm who relied heavily on Outlook for daily communications. As of 2 p.m. ET, she reported that while she could still search her inbox, she was unable to send or receive emails—frustrations echoed by many across the globe. Her firm stated that they believed the outage was not isolated to their organization, indicating a larger, global disruption.
Current Status and Ongoing Solutions
By 2:31 p.m. ET, Microsoft reported that they had halted all ongoing deployments while working to restart affected servers. In their updates, the company explained that the increased load on their services was not due to a surge in user traffic but rather a number of servers that had gone offline unexpectedly. They committed to restoring services while ensuring the infrastructure would be safely brought back online.
For administrators impacted by the outage, Microsoft directed them to refer to the Microsoft 365 admin center for specific details under incident codes EX1550543 and MO1550821. Users were urged to keep checking status updates in case the admin center was not accessible.
As this situation continues to develop, Microsoft has promised to provide updates as more information becomes available. Users are encouraged to stay vigilant and check in regularly for updates while they work to resolve the issues affecting their services.