Microsoft is working to resolve a widespread technical disruption that has impacted its core services, including Outlook, Teams, and the AI-powered Copilot platform. The outage, which began shortly after 16:15 GMT on Thursday, has affected users across 74 countries, according to data from the monitoring website Downdetector.
At the height of the disruption around 18:00 GMT, reports of issues with Outlook surged to nearly 140,000, representing a volume more than 2,000 times higher than typical levels. While the company has been addressing the connectivity problems for at least eight hours, it reported that more than 28,000 users were still experiencing issues as of the latest update.
Microsoft attributed the instability to an "elevated load" across its infrastructure in multiple regions. The company explained that the issue stemmed from several servers becoming "unexpectedly unavailable," which placed excessive strain on the remaining infrastructure and caused key components to become overwhelmed. Microsoft cautioned that some services might remain unresponsive during periods of high traffic as they work to identify the root cause.
In a recent update posted to X, the company stated that its technical teams are "seeing positive results" in their efforts to restart affected systems and are continuing to monitor performance closely. While some users have faced difficulties accessing Microsoft 365 applications, calendar details, and files, the company noted that messaging and online meeting functions have remained largely operational.
The global disruption has drawn significant attention on social media, where users have shared memes and jokes regarding the reliance on corporate digital tools. One widely shared post on X, which referenced a scene from a 2002 music video, joked, "With Outlook down, it’s time to be like Kelly Rowland and start sending emails through Excel." Other users humorously speculated on whether the outage might grant them an early end to the work week.
Microsoft continues to manage the situation, with operations teams racing to stabilize the infrastructure and restore full functionality to all affected regions, including the US, Japan, Singapore, the UK, and Australia.