Microsoft works to restore Outlook and Teams after global outage

Microsoft is actively working to resolve a global outage affecting its Microsoft 365 applications, including Outlook and Teams. The disruption, detected by outage tracker Downdetector in just an hour across 74 countries, prevented users from accessing their emails and other services. This disruption also hampered Microsoft 365 connectors relied upon by tech giants OpenAI and Anthropic, resulting in non-functional tools for their users.

Downdetector logged around 130,000 US reports of Outlook-related problems shortly after 1 p.m. EST. Users reported issues with both sending and receiving emails, as well as complete inaccessibility of the email program. Problems with the Teams workplace messaging app and other Microsoft 365 services like the AI assistant Copilot were also reported.

Initially, Microsoft acknowledged via X that users were experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas, attributing part of the issue to heightened load on its infrastructure likely causing connectivity errors. The company stated it was "aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact."

However, some servers restarted but responded again once traffic returned. At 0254 GMT on Friday, Microsoft reported its latest changes had not worked as expected and that it was exploring other avenues to restore service.