Microsoft Outlook Down in 74 Countries; Microsoft Blames Overload

Microsoft Outlook has been failing since late Thursday, leaving businesses and government offices in 74 countries and territories without reliable email, according to a report by RS Web Solutions based on Radio France Internationale (RFI). Microsoft confirmed the disruption, said on Friday that an excessive load on its infrastructure caused it, and ruled out malicious activity. The exact start time and time zone have not been disclosed.

By Friday the company reported further progress in its recovery, with traffic slowly building back across parts of the affected systems. It warned that intermittent problems could continue, and it has not announced a full restoration.

What is broken

Millions of people around the world have been unable to get into Outlook for more than half a day, the report said. In a social media update, Microsoft said mailbox access and delayed email processing were improving. Teams and Copilot have also had problems, which the company traced to the same server trouble.

Who is affected

Rail operators in Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom warned passengers that tickets sent by email for Friday trips might be out of reach for now. Travelers can still pull up their tickets in the website or app they used to buy them, the operators said.

In the UK, emergency call staff at the National Health Service could not reach patient information the usual way, which caused large backlogs, according to Rachel Harrison, head of public services at the GMB union.

Euronext, the European stock exchange operator, told listed companies to share corporate information by phone. In France, the town hall of Aulnay-sous-Bois, in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, said all of its email had stopped working: “No emails can be sent or received.” Its services can still be reached by phone, and public buildings are open as usual. Users in Asia and Africa have also been hit.

In the United States, OpenAI and Anthropic both reported trouble connecting to Microsoft 365 tools.

What it means if you use Outlook

Microsoft’s own updates are the place to watch for word that service is back. Simple checks, such as signing out and back in or updating the app, can rule out a problem on your own device, and our guide to checking Microsoft service health and fixing Outlook walks through them. People waiting on an emailed ticket or document may be able to get it from the website or app that issued it, as the rail operators advised.

Microsoft rules out an attack

Microsoft has said the outage was not caused by malicious activity. Christophe Aulnette, a former president of Microsoft France, told the broadcaster Franceinfo that the episode shows how a failure at a central point in connected systems can spread worldwide. He said he had no information pointing to a cyberattack on Outlook.

Source: RS Web Solutions