Microsoft Outlook went down for many users this afternoon as a Microsoft 365 outage disrupted email, Teams, SharePoint and Copilot across the Americas. Microsoft says a number of servers unexpectedly went offline, overloading the remaining system. User reports began spiking just before 1 p.m. ET, and Downdetector logged more than 130,000 reports by 2 p.m., according to FOX Business. Microsoft has not said when service will be fully restored.
It was the company’s second outage of the day. Earlier today, Microsoft investigated a separate Teams issue in North America, which was resolved several hours later. Then, around noon, it began looking into email problems. For many workers, that meant losing Teams in the morning and Outlook in the afternoon.
What caused the Microsoft Outlook outage?
It wasn’t a traffic surge. Microsoft’s status account said the elevated load was not driven by more traffic but by a number of servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable, which strained the rest of the infrastructure. In a later update, Microsoft said it was testing a configuration change to fix a problem causing servers to fail automated health checks, while restarting all affected servers and monitoring them as they come back online.
Social media filled with theories about cyberattacks and AI gone rogue. Microsoft has given no indication that the outage was caused by an attack.
Which Microsoft services are down?
Microsoft listed Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Defender XDR as potentially affected. The company first described the problem as affecting users in the Americas, then confirmed it could impact Microsoft 365 connectivity in any region. Even Microsoft’s own status page struggled to load during the worst of it. Admins can track the incident under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
How many people are affected?
The scale is massive. Variety reports Microsoft 365 had more than 450 million commercial seats as of the December 2025 quarter. Not every user lost access, but outages at this level hit businesses, schools, hospitals and government offices that rely on Outlook and Teams to function.
Has this happened before?
Yes. Boston University’s IT status page tracked a widespread Microsoft outage in January 2026 where Microsoft restored the affected infrastructure but said additional load balancing was needed to fix lingering issues. Two major disruptions in one year will likely increase pressure on Microsoft from enterprise customers, many of whom pay for guaranteed uptime.
What should you do while Outlook is down?
Don’t panic and don’t keep resetting your password, since the issue is on Microsoft’s end. Check status.cloud.microsoft for updates. Desktop versions of Outlook may still show recently synced emails offline. Use a phone or text to reach coworkers about urgent matters. Watch out for scams too. Fake emails or texts claiming to fix your Microsoft account often appear during big outages. Microsoft will not ask for your password to restore service.
Until Microsoft confirms a full fix, expect delays as servers come back online. Your inbox should return, but it may take some time to catch up.
