On Friday, Microsoft announced in an update that a prolonged outage was impacting numerous Microsoft 365 services linked to its Exchange Online and email systems. Users reported disruptions in services such as Outlook, Teams, and the AI assistant Copilot.
The company, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, indicated that it was exploring various methods to diagnose the issue and restore its servers, applying “a measured approach to detect and rectify the affected infrastructure.”
Microsoft clarified that there was no indication of malicious activity causing the outage and vowed to handle the situation “with urgency and priority until it is fully resolved.”
According to Microsoft, over 430 million individuals utilize Microsoft 365 applications, with the outage impacting personal users, businesses, and certain government operations.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic reported difficulties in connecting with Microsoft 365 tools, highlighting the widespread consequences of outages as more users leverage artificial intelligence platforms for interactions with various software.
A series of updates from the company on X indicated that its engineers were facing challenges in fully managing the situation.
‘Capacity enhancements’ since Thursday
Shortly after announcing a successful restoration of service health and functionality, Microsoft updated its list of affected services and continued to address the ongoing issues.
The latest communication provided little reassurance for users hoping for a swift fix.
“We have monitored the changes implemented to enhance serviceability and confirmed they are not performing as anticipated,” the company stated.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of Microsoft users throughout Canada and the United States faced difficulties accessing Outlook’s email services, Copilot’s AI software, and other critical applications due to a widespread outage. By Thursday evening, Microsoft reported that it was restoring some of the affected servers to full functionality.
In a more recent update on Friday, Microsoft stated, “we are observing initial stabilization and capacity enhancements as recovery efforts proceed.”
Hospitals, airlines, banks impacted
A healthcare network managing several hospitals in Toronto announced a code grey, signaling an infrastructure failure.
Unity Health Toronto reported that its teams were having trouble sending and receiving emails, but assured that patient and resident care was not compromised by the outage.
In Japan, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki mentioned that the outage affected the government’s IT systems and that they were “monitoring the situation closely.” Japanese officials took measures, including securing alternative communication methods such as phones, according to the government.
The Supreme Court of the Philippines announced via X that the ongoing Microsoft 365 service outage has disrupted some of its operations, including email communications.
In Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated Friday that he had spoken with Microsoft’s top executive in the region and the national cybersecurity coordinator regarding the global interruption.
“Microsoft does not believe they are facing a cyberattack,” Burke informed reporters in Sydney.
Air India reported that its flight operations remained unaffected by the global Microsoft outage. However, the airline temporarily redirected its email services to ensure that customer inquiries continued to be addressed without delays, as stated by the company.
Singapore’s Government Technology Agency reported that government emails were down and that it is collaborating with Microsoft to resolve the situation.
Danny Lau, a business owner in Hong Kong running an aluminum company, stated that his firm’s Outlook accounts were unable to receive updates from U.S. clients due to the outage. He warned that if the issue persisted, it could “affect the production schedule.”
Several banks in Hong Kong, a key financial center in Asia, also experienced disruptions in parts of their operations.
Workhorse Group Inc., a U.S.-based industrial technology firm, postponed a conference call for its quarterly earnings due to the outage.
Approximately 130,000 users from various countries reported issues accessing Outlook on Thursday, according to outage tracker Downdetector, although new reports have since decreased from that peak.