Microsoft Restores Global 365 Services After Outage Disrupts Users Across 74 Countries

Microsoft said it has restored service after a worldwide outage that disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot in at least 74 countries and territories. The company said the problem was a technical issue tied to heavy load, not a cyberattack, and warned users about phishing emails posing as service notifications during the disruption.

Microsoft says it is seeing progress in restoring Microsoft 365 services after a global outage that disrupted Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other tools for businesses, courts and emergency services. The company said email access and delivery are improving in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, though some users still face delays and intermittent outages.

Microsoft said it was seeing improvements after a global outage hit Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services across 74 countries, disrupting hospitals, airlines, schools and businesses. The company blamed elevated load on its infrastructure, with the impact felt from the Americas to Asia-Pacific and prompting warnings about how dependent governments and companies are on cloud services.

Microsoft Outlook suffered a major outage Thursday, leaving tens of thousands of users unable to access email as Microsoft blamed “elevated load” on infrastructure across multiple regions. The disruption also hit Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Copilot, showing how widely a cloud failure can spread.

A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services on Thursday, leaving users unable to send email or access inboxes. Microsoft said Exchange Online mailboxes in the Americas were affected by elevated load and unexpectedly unavailable servers, and it was testing a fix as reports continued.