Microsoft reveals reason behind global outage affecting Outlook and Teams
Microsoft has clarified the reason behind the widespread disruption that affected several of its services, including Outlook and Teams, across multiple countries. The company attributed the incident to a technical problem connected to an earlier network capacity upgrade, which became apparent after a subsequent network change.
In a statement shared on X on Friday, Microsoft said engineers had identified and addressed the underlying problem. The company added that restoration efforts were continuing for customers and regions that were still experiencing difficulties.
Microsoft also dismissed speculation that the disruption was caused by a cyberattack or connected to artificial intelligence systems and AI agents.
Explaining the incident, the company said the fault originated during an earlier network capacity enhancement and resurfaced following a more recent network modification. It emphasised that the problem was technical in nature rather than the result of malicious activity.
The outage affected Microsoft 365 services, leaving users unable to access certain features related to email, calendars and workplace communication. Reports of service interruptions emerged from 72 countries, with complaints recorded across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.
The disruption began on Thursday and continued into Friday, affecting individuals, businesses and government organisations that depend on Microsoft’s cloud-based services for their daily operations.
The company apologised to customers and business partners for the inconvenience. Microsoft also reiterated that service reliability remains a major responsibility and said it would publish a detailed post-incident report after completing its investigation.