Microsoft 365 Outage: Outlook, Teams, Copilot down for thousands

Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Teams suffered a five-hour global outage on Thursday due to server issues, disrupting users and AI connectors.

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Thousands experience major disruptions amid Microsoft outage

A widespread service failure at Microsoft left many users unable to reach Outlook, Teams, and other 365 apps for over five hours on Thursday. The problems also spilled over to tools that link OpenAI's and Anthropic's AI products to Microsoft's software.

Microsoft said a group of its servers went offline unexpectedly because of heavy load, and that the cause was not a jump in traffic. The company's spokesperson said it was looking into user complaints, which centered on Exchange Online, the email backbone of the suite.

Outage-tracking site Downdetector logged its highest volume of Outlook complaints, 138,058, at about 1 p.m. ET. That figure had shrunk to roughly 34,490 by the evening. A little before 6 p.m. ET, Microsoft 365 complaints stood near 13,000, and about 763 users reported trouble with Teams.

As of 6 p.m. ET, Microsoft said recovery was only partial and that engineers were still restoring servers. 

Machines already brought back were holding steady, the company said, while traffic was being moved onto other routes where it could be. Microsoft added that it was making the process of reviving the remaining servers more efficient, and that users could expect connections to return gradually as capacity came back.

The disruption also reached AI services. OpenAI said it was examining a fault with its Microsoft connectors, which could prevent new connections from forming and cause some tools to misbehave. Anthropic said a problem at an upstream provider was affecting its Microsoft 365 connector.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, we're unable to access Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and Copilot as of this writing. Many users across social media have also shared their frustration, causing major disruption to their work.

What do you guys think?

Sources: Microsoft, Reuters