Microsoft cannot get global disruption to online services under control
Tens of thousands of users worldwide were affected, and remedial measures did not go as hoped
Quick Look
- A massive disruption to Microsoft's Outlook email service on Thursday made it difficult for tens of thousands of users in 74 countries and regions to access their email.
- Microsoft Teams and the AI assistant Copilot were also affected.
- According to Microsoft, the remedial measures did not go as hoped on Friday night either.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Microsoft is a US technology company that operates the Outlook email service and the cloud services Microsoft 365, Teams and Copilot. The disruption platform Downdetector reported that the disruption spread worldwide within an hour.
A massive disruption in the US technology group Microsoft's Outlook email service caused tens of thousands of users problems accessing their emails on Thursday. As the disruption platform Downdetector reported, the disruption spread worldwide within an hour and paralyzed Microsoft services in 74 countries and regions. According to Microsoft, the measures to resolve the problem “did not go as hoped” on Friday night.
Initially, Microsoft only investigated reports of problems from America. The US software company later announced that the connection problems could affect users of Microsoft 365 services in all regions of the world.
All regions of the world affected
The platform also registered thousands of fault reports with the Microsoft Teams communications service and the AI assistant Copilot. Both applications belong to the Microsoft 365 cloud offering.
A map published by Downdetector on the online service X later showed that the outages affected users in North and South America as well as parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. In the USA, the disruption lasted for much of the working day.
According to Microsoft, "part of the infrastructure in several regions was exposed to increased utilization." This "probably contributes to the connection errors," the company explained at
The company later reported only “limited improvement.” An attempt is being made to redirect user data traffic from the affected servers. "As soon as capacity is restored, the situation for users should gradually improve," it said.
However, the problem had not been resolved hours later. "We have monitored the status of the changes made to improve service availability and determined that they are not having the expected effect," said Microsoft on Friday night.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The situation for users will gradually improve once capacity is restored.
Likely · Within days
Open Questions
- When will the problem be completely resolved?
- How many users were affected in total?
- What was the exact cause of the increased infrastructure utilization?
