Tens of thousands of Microsoft users around the world experienced problems accessing Outlook, Teams and other services. The outage lasted more than five hours.
Users also reported problems with Copilot, Microsoft's AI-powered assistant. According to Downdetector, the outage affected users in 74 countries and territories worldwide.
On its Microsoft 365 Status page, the company said it was investigating reports from users in North and South America who were unable to access its Exchange Online email service through various methods. Microsoft later clarified that users in other regions could also experience connectivity issues.
According to the company, infrastructure loads increased in several regions, causing services to become unavailable. At the same time, reports indicated that the problem was not related to an increase in internet traffic.
Following the outage, Microsoft rerouted data flows through alternative routes. The company subsequently reported that services were gradually being restored.
The outage highlighted how many users' work can depend on the uninterrupted operation of a single technology company's services. When email, communication and AI tools experience problems simultaneously, the impact extends beyond a single application.
It is also worth noting that Microsoft attributed the issue to increased infrastructure loads while ruling out a rise in internet traffic as the cause. This suggests that outages affecting major cloud systems are not always driven by an increase in the number of users or requests. The stability of connections between services also plays an important role.
Rerouting data flows through alternative channels helped initiate the gradual restoration of services. However, the company's statement has yet to explain exactly what caused the increased infrastructure load.
