Global Outlook outage: Microsoft struggles to find a solution

The problem, attributed to excessive load on the infrastructure, is impacting not only Outlook messaging but also other services such as Teams and the AI assistant Copilot.

The disruptions have spread globally, preventing many businesses and administrations from communicating via Outlook. Microsoft explained on the platform X: “We have monitored the status of changes applied to improve service maintainability and confirmed that they are not producing the expected effects.”

The company added that it is exploring alternative solutions to increase capacity in the face of persistent traffic management imbalances, without providing an estimated time for resolution.

According to the outage tracking website Downdetector, the outage affected users in 74 countries and territories within an hour. A map published on X shows problems reported in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The New Zealand government issued an official notice indicating that its ability to receive emails was compromised, affecting all its embassies, consulates and representations around the world.

Microsoft initially mentioned problems “in the Americas” before confirming that it was a “connectivity issue to the Microsoft 365 service for users, regardless of their region.” Microsoft 365, the company’s cloud subscription service, includes popular applications such as Outlook and Teams.

“We have determined that a portion of the infrastructure is experiencing high load across multiple regions, which is likely the cause of the connectivity errors,” Microsoft clarified on X.

Downdetector recorded a decrease in outage reports in Washington and Hong Kong around 04:50 GMT. Thousands of users also reported problems with Teams and Copilot.

In a late Thursday evening update, Microsoft reported “limited recovery” of services, attempting to redirect user traffic. “As capacity is restored, users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect,” the company concluded.