Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook, Teams and other services for thousands of users

A widespread outage affected Microsoft's Outlook email service and other platforms on Thursday, leaving thousands of users unable to access their accounts or connect to work applications.

Reports of Outlook problems on the tracking site Downdetector rose to around 130,000 shortly after 1pm Eastern Time (18:00 GMT), with users describing failures in sending or receiving emails and difficulty opening inboxes. By just before 3pm (20:00 GMT), the number of reported issues had dropped to about 77,000.

Users also experienced difficulties accessing Microsoft's Teams messaging platform, its Copilot AI assistant, and other Microsoft 365 services. The company noted that the disruption could potentially affect users across any region.

In a statement posted on X, Microsoft explained that some servers had become unavailable and were failing automatic health checks, which placed additional strain on the servers still functioning. The company said it was trialling a configuration adjustment to redistribute traffic that had surged on parts of its network, while also restarting affected services in an effort to bring them back online.

Microsoft indicated that it was working to restore the affected services safely, but did not provide a timeframe for when full functionality would return.