Microsoft outage knocks out Outlook and Teams for thousands: 140,000+ reports

Microsoft suffered a widespread outage on Thursday afternoon that hit Outlook, Teams and Microsoft 365 for thousands of users in North America, according to CNBC, which cited the outage tracker Downdetector. The New York Post reported more than 140,000 outage reports as of 1:30 p.m. ET. At the time of writing we have not seen a Microsoft statement saying service is fully restored.

What Microsoft has said

CNBC reported the outage began shortly before 1 p.m. ET. In a post on X shortly after 1:30 p.m., the Microsoft 365 Status account said a portion of infrastructure was "experiencing elevated load across multiple regions," which was likely contributing to connectivity errors. Microsoft later said the problem was an increase in unavailable servers, and that it had started restarting the affected servers. It pointed to failed health checks tied to a "specific component that's responsible for processing server health" as a possible link, and said it was working to stop more servers from being affected.

Earlier, Microsoft told users it was investigating reports of problems reaching Exchange Online mailboxes "through multiple connection methods in the Americas," the Post reported. The Post added that it was not clear what took the servers offline.

Other services also reported problems

CNBC said users of Amazon Web Services and Google also reported problems on Downdetector. Downdetector counts are user reports, not confirmed failures, and a spike on one provider can lift reports on others. We have not seen either company confirm an outage of its own, so treat those reports as unverified.

Who this hits

• Offices that run on Exchange Online. Mail, calendars and Teams calls all depend on it, so a mid-afternoon outage can strand quotes, invoices and customer replies in the middle of a workday.
• Owners who take orders or payments by email. A contractor waiting on a signed change order or a distributor confirming a delivery window cannot see replies until mail returns.
• Firms with Teams as their phone line. If calls route through Teams, customers may hit voicemail or nothing at all.

What to do while it is down

• Check Microsoft's service health page and the Microsoft 365 Status account on X before restarting devices. Local fixes will not help if the fault is on Microsoft's servers.
• For anything time-sensitive, use the phone or a text message, and tell customers by another channel that replies may be delayed.
• Do not resend large batches of email as soon as service returns. Messages sent during the outage may be delivered late, and duplicates add confusion.
• Afterward, note the hours you lost. If your contract or Microsoft's service terms include credits for downtime, you will need the times.

The stock

Microsoft shares were near $523 as of Thursday's data, about 5.9% below the Nov. 4 peak, based on Yahoo Finance price data. We have not seen reporting that ties any price move to the outage.

We will update this story if Microsoft confirms restoration or a root cause. Sources: CNBC; New York Post; Downdetector counts as reported by both. This is market information, not investment advice.