Is Microsoft down? What caused the Microsoft 365 outage? Here’s what to know

Thousands of users across the globe were left frustrated on Thursday after Microsoft’s suite of productivity and communication tools — including Teams, Outlook, and Office 365 — suffered a major service disruption. The widespread outage, which initially affected tens of thousands of users, has since shown signs of improvement, according to data from outage-tracking platform Downdetector.com.

As of 3:07 p.m. ET, reports of service interruptions had declined significantly to just over 1,500, compared to the 17,000 complaints recorded earlier in the day. Downdetector, which aggregates real-time feedback from users and various sources, indicated that while most services were gradually returning to normal, some users were still experiencing connectivity issues and slow performance.

Microsoft later confirmed the incident via its Microsoft 365 status page on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that engineers had “rerouted the impacted traffic to healthy infrastructure,” leading to visible improvements in the platform’s overall health. The company did not specify what caused the sudden disruption but emphasized that it was monitoring system performance to prevent further occurrences.

The first wave of user complaints began with Microsoft Teams, the company’s popular virtual meeting and collaboration tool. Within hours, Downdetector registered more than 10,000 outage reports for Teams alone. Soon after, Office 365 and Outlook followed, with over 13,000 and 8,000 users respectively reporting they were unable to log in, send emails, or access shared files.

While Microsoft has faced occasional service disruptions in the past, Thursday’s incident was particularly notable for its scale and the range of services affected. Beyond the core productivity tools, several users also reported interruptions in other Microsoft-owned platforms such as the Xbox network and Azure, the company’s cloud computing and AI infrastructure service.

Businesses and remote workers, who rely heavily on Microsoft’s ecosystem for daily operations, expressed concern over the timing of the outage. Many took to social media to share their frustrations, particularly those in sectors where seamless communication is critical. “We were in the middle of a client meeting when Teams froze completely,” one user wrote on X. “It’s been chaos trying to reschedule.”

By late afternoon, Microsoft reassured customers that the issue had been largely resolved and that all affected services were gradually being restored. However, some users continued to experience brief lags or synchronization errors, particularly in shared documents and calendar updates.

Analysts have pointed out that such outages, while not uncommon in large-scale cloud ecosystems, highlight the growing dependency of global enterprises on a handful of centralized digital service providers. “A short disruption on platforms like Microsoft 365 can have ripple effects across millions of users and thousands of organizations,” one technology expert explained.

Microsoft has not yet provided an official post-mortem report on the root cause of the outage, but it is expected to release a detailed update once internal investigations conclude. The company’s engineers are reportedly examining whether the issue stemmed from a software update, a misconfiguration in its cloud network, or an external cyber-related event.

For now, most users appear to have regained access to their accounts and are resuming normal activity. Still, the temporary shutdown serves as a reminder of how dependent the modern workplace has become on uninterrupted digital connectivity.

FAQ

1. What caused the Microsoft 365 outage?
Microsoft has not yet disclosed the exact cause, but engineers have rerouted affected traffic and are investigating possible infrastructure or network issues.

2. Which Microsoft services were affected?
Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Office 365, Xbox, and Azure were among the services that experienced disruptions.

3. How long did the outage last?
Reports of major disruptions began earlier in the afternoon and eased after several hours as Microsoft restored normal operations.

4. Was user data affected by the outage?
There are no indications that user data was lost or compromised; the issue was strictly related to service access and performance.

5. How can users stay updated on Microsoft’s service health?
Users can monitor updates on the official Microsoft 365 Status page or follow the company’s verified account on X (Twitter) for real-time information.