A widespread Microsoft outage on Thursday disrupted access to Outlook, Teams, and Copilot, affecting thousands of users across the Americas and Europe. The company confirmed it was investigating the issue and working to restore services.
According to Downdetector, a platform that aggregates user reports, more than 120,000 users in the United States had reported problems with Outlook by early afternoon Eastern Time. That number later climbed above 130,000. Users complained of being unable to access their mailboxes, send or receive messages, and experienced delays in email delivery.
The disruption extended beyond email. Microsoft 365, the company's suite of productivity tools, saw over 46,000 reports, while Teams, the workplace communication platform, had around 3,000 users reporting access difficulties. Copilot, Microsoft's AI-powered assistant, also experienced issues.
Infrastructure overload blamed
Microsoft acknowledged the problem in a series of updates on X, stating that users were unable to access Exchange Online mailboxes through various connection methods in the Americas. In a subsequent update, the company identified a likely cause: part of its infrastructure was experiencing higher than normal load, which was probably responsible for the connection errors.
To mitigate the impact, Microsoft said it intended to redistribute traffic across its infrastructure to rebalance the load and restore connectivity. The company did not immediately provide further details on the root cause or an overall estimate of affected users.
The day had begun with reports of Teams malfunctioning. Microsoft said it had resolved the issues affecting the service in North America, although some users were still experiencing connection difficulties.
While the outage was most pronounced in the Americas, European users also reported problems, particularly with Outlook and Teams. The disruption comes at a time when businesses and public institutions across the continent rely heavily on Microsoft's cloud-based services for daily operations.
This is not the first time Microsoft has faced such challenges. Earlier this year, a separate incident affected services in Europe, prompting calls for greater resilience in critical digital infrastructure. The company has been under pressure to ensure the reliability of its platforms, especially as governments and enterprises increasingly depend on them.
For now, Microsoft is focusing on restoring full functionality. Users are advised to monitor the company's status page for updates. The outage serves as a reminder of the fragility of centralized cloud services and the importance of contingency planning for businesses and public bodies alike.
