Microsoft users across the world experienced widespread service disruptions on Thursday after a technical outage affected several of the company's major platforms. Millions of people faced difficulties accessing their email accounts, workplace communication tools and other essential applications, disrupting both personal and professional activities.

The outage primarily affected Microsoft Outlook, but users also reported problems with Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services.

Over 1.30 lakh complaints reported on Downdetector

According to outage-tracking platform Downdetector, reports of problems with Microsoft Outlook surged shortly after 1 p.m., with nearly 1.30 lakh users reporting issues.

Although the number of complaints declined slightly later, many users continued to experience difficulties accessing their inboxes. Some were unable to send or receive emails, while others reported that their mailboxes were not loading properly.

The scale of the reports indicated that the disruption was affecting a large number of Microsoft customers.

Teams, Copilot and Microsoft 365 also affected

The problem was not limited to Outlook. Users also reported errors while accessing Microsoft Teams, the company's workplace messaging and video-conferencing platform.

Microsoft Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services were also among the platforms affected by the disruption.

For businesses and professionals that rely on Microsoft's ecosystem for everyday operations, the outage created difficulties in accessing emails, communicating with colleagues and using essential workplace tools.

What caused the Microsoft outage?

Microsoft acknowledged the disruption through its Microsoft 365 status updates on X.

In its initial assessment, the company said users in the Americas region were experiencing problems accessing their Exchange Online mailboxes through different methods.

Microsoft's investigation identified excessive load on a portion of its infrastructure as a key factor behind the connectivity issues.

The company also discovered that a technical problem during an automated health check had caused several servers to become unavailable unexpectedly. This affected the infrastructure responsible for providing access to email services.

Microsoft working to restore affected services

Following the disruption, Microsoft said it was working to reduce the impact and restore normal connectivity.

The company stated that it was investigating the root cause and implementing an alternative recovery process to bring the affected servers back online.

Earlier in the day, Microsoft had also reported progress in resolving issues affecting Teams in North America. However, some users continued to experience connectivity problems even after the initial fix.

What should users do during the outage?

If Microsoft services are not working, users can take a few precautions:

• Check the official Microsoft 365 service status page for outage updates.

• Avoid repeatedly changing account settings or resetting passwords when the problem appears to be service-wide.

• Try accessing Outlook through another supported device or browser.

• Use an alternative communication method for urgent work-related messages.

• Save important documents locally where possible to avoid interruptions.

A widespread cloud-service outage can affect thousands of organisations that depend on the same infrastructure. Until Microsoft completes its recovery efforts, users may continue to experience intermittent disruptions across its services.