A Microsoft outage lasting more than 12 hours disrupted Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 features for businesses and governments worldwide. Microsoft said server issues caused the outage, it was seeing positive results from fixes, and it was not aware of malicious activity.
The outage affected Outlook and Teams, as well as Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant, preventing users from sending email, managing calendars and hosting virtual meetings. Government agencies and businesses worldwide reported disruptions, with some organizations reverting to fax machines and at least one Taiwanese company cancelling a bond repurchase transaction.
Microsoft said server issues were behind the incident and that a broader rollout of software fixes was starting to stabilize the system. It said features tied to Exchange Online were affected, while applications not connected to the service remained operational. Microsoft said it was not aware of malicious activity causing the outage.
The outage was one of the longest in Microsoft’s history and the second disruption to its services this year. Microsoft’s shares fell 1.7% before the bell, lagging the broader market; they had gained roughly 8% so far this year. Analysts have questioned whether outages could push customers toward rivals, while noting the steep switching costs of replacing tools embedded in daily operations.
