Microsoft's popular communication tools, Outlook and Teams, experienced significant outages on Monday, leaving thousands of users unable to access vital services. The tech giant announced it had identified the issue and was deploying a fix but warned that recovery was progressing slower than anticipated.
Reports of issues with Microsoft 365 products began early Monday morning, with outage-tracking site Downdetector showing over 5,000 user complaints by noon ET. While Microsoft stated that its solution had reached "approximately 98% of the affected environments," many users continued to report problems accessing email, calendars, and collaborative tools.
"We've started to deploy a fix which is currently progressing through the affected environment. While this progresses, we're beginning manual restarts on a subset of machines that are in an unhealthy state," the company posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
By mid-afternoon, Microsoft admitted the manual restarts were slower than expected and declined to provide a clear timeline for full restoration. Many affected users voiced their frustrations online, though some viewed the disruption as a welcome break ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The outage primarily affected Exchange Online, a cloud-based email server, and the calendar features of Microsoft Teams. These tools are integral to businesses worldwide, with Microsoft Teams alone boasting 320 million monthly users, according to company data.
Microsoft attributed the outage to a "recent change," which it quickly reversed. While the company did not detail the nature of the change, Monday marked the rollout of Recall AI, a new tool for Windows Insiders. The tool, designed to take regular snapshots of computer activity for easy recall, had previously been delayed over privacy concerns. Microsoft has not confirmed if Recall AI was connected to the outage.
The disruption highlights the dependence of global businesses on Microsoft's services, which are part of the broader Microsoft 365 suite. Outlook and Teams are widely used for email, scheduling, and communication, making them essential tools for millions of companies.
Despite the setback, Microsoft remains a dominant player in the tech world. The company is valued at $3 trillion, ranking as the second company ever to reach that milestone. It is listed at No. 8 on Forbes' index of the world's most valuable companies. However, shares traded slightly down on Monday, dipping 0.3% to $415, even as the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.5%.
The outage is not the first to disrupt businesses relying on cloud-based tools. Earlier this year, a CrowdStrike software issue caused what many called the largest IT outage in history, halting air travel and affecting hospitals. That event reportedly cost Fortune 500 companies over $5 billion in direct losses. While Microsoft's current outage is not as widespread, it underscores the vulnerabilities of heavily interconnected systems.
