Microsoft 365 users across the world are facing difficulties accessing Outlook, Teams and other services. Microsoft is working to resolve a major outage affecting its cloud infrastructure.
The company initially reported problems with Exchange Online mailboxes in the Americas. The first update came at approximately 10:54 PM Pakistan time on Thursday.
Microsoft later confirmed that the disruption could affect users in any region. This means customers outside the Americas may also experience service interruptions. The outage has affected several services within Microsoft’s productivity and security platforms. Users have reported difficulties accessing email and other workplace tools.
Which Microsoft 365 services are affected?
According to Microsoft’s status page, several services could experience disruptions. These include:
- Exchange Online, which powers Outlook email services.
- Microsoft Teams, used for workplace communication and meetings.
- SharePoint Online, which supports file sharing and collaboration.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered productivity assistant.
- Microsoft Defender XDR, which provides security monitoring and threat protection.
Users may face problems opening their mailboxes through Outlook on the web. Mobile email applications using Exchange ActiveSync may also experience connection issues. Other methods of connecting to Exchange Online could be affected. The disruption may prevent users from accessing important work emails and communication tools.
What caused the Microsoft 365 outage?
Microsoft said part of its infrastructure is experiencing unusually high workloads. The increased load across multiple regions is likely causing connection problems.
The company is also investigating an unexpected rise in a specific type of service traffic. It wants to determine whether this increase contributed to the disruption. Microsoft has not identified a single confirmed cause for the outage. Its technical teams are continuing to investigate the affected systems.
Microsoft takes steps to restore services
Microsoft said it is actively working to reduce the outage’s impact. The company has paused deployments while investigating the problem. It has also distributed connection traffic across its global infrastructure. Additional traffic has been moved away from affected systems.
The company has started restarting servers experiencing problems. These measures aim to improve system performance and restore access. However, Microsoft has not disclosed the total number of affected users. It has also not provided a confirmed timeline for full service restoration.
Earlier Microsoft Teams disruption also reported
Microsoft experienced another separate disruption involving Teams earlier on Thursday. That incident affected users in North America.
The company said the earlier Teams issue was fully resolved around 10:09 PM Pakistan time. The latest Microsoft 365 outage is a separate incident. The disruption follows a recent Google Cloud outage. That incident affected banks, courts and businesses in several sectors.
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Microsoft is providing updates through its Microsoft 365 admin center. Users can follow incident EX1550543 for the latest information. Until services are fully restored, affected customers may continue experiencing access problems. Microsoft has not yet announced when normal operations will resume.
