Microsoft is experiencing a global outage, with multiple Microsoft 365 services affected. The outage, which began in the early hours of Friday morning, has left users locked out of services including Microsoft Copilot 365, Microsoft 365 Admin Center, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Fabric, and SharePoint Online.
Exchange Online was also affected, with users unable to access their mailbox. The disruptions have affected businesses across Australia, limiting access to vital communications tools and information-sharing systems.
Microsoft’s consumer products, such as Outlook and OneDrive, have also been impacted by the outage. As of Friday afternoon, Microsoft reported that its systems are still affected and are experiencing “sustained traffic management imbalances.”
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The company initially reported that a portion of its infrastructure was handling a higher load than usual across multiple regions, which was likely contributing to the connectivity errors. By 5:35 AM AEDT, Microsoft determined that this raised load was causing issues, but it was later found that the root cause was not increased traffic. However, it was later determined that numerous servers were “being unexpectedly unavailable,” straining the remaining infrastructure. This unexpected unavailability of servers was identified by 6:31 AM AEDT, providing more insight into the cause of the outage.
Microsoft provided updates throughout the day, stating that its initial efforts to restart affected infrastructure had shown “positive results.” However, by 2:13 PM AEDT, the company reported that the attempted fixes were “not taking as expected.” The company had also provided an update at 9:09 AM AEDT, stating that their actions had not provided the anticipated relief, indicating that the issue was more complex than initially thought.
Their efforts to resolve the issue are ongoing, and they will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available. By 9:09 AM AEDT, Microsoft had already acknowledged that their initial actions were not effective, and by 12:59 PM AEDT, they reported seeing positive results with their efforts to restart affected infrastructure. However, the outage continued, and the company is working to restore full functionality to its services as quickly as possible, with the priority being to get all services back online.
