Microsoft 365 outage knocks out Outlook email and other apps for users across the Americas

Microsoft 365 users in multiple regions hit connectivity errors Thursday as the company worked to fix a widespread outage, FOX Business reports.

Microsoft said the problem was not caused by a jump in traffic. Instead, a "number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable" strained the rest of its infrastructure. "We're working to safely return them to service," the company said, adding that it was "aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact."

Microsoft said Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Copilot 365 and Microsoft Defender XDR may be affected, and that it was investigating reports of users unable to reach Exchange Online mailboxes "through multiple connection methods in the Americas." Engineers paused all deployments, were moving traffic off the affected infrastructure and were restarting the servers.

Downdetector showed more than 130,000 problem reports as of 2 p.m. ET Thursday. It was not clear how long the outage would last.