Microsoft Struggles to Fix Global Outage Affecting Teams, Outlook and Copilot

Microsoft is facing difficulties resolving a global service outage that has disrupted access to several of its products, including Teams, Outlook and its artificial intelligence software, Copilot.

The technology giant said its efforts to restore services were not progressing as expected, with users continuing to experience connectivity problems more than 11 hours after the disruption began.

According to a website monitoring online service disruptions, the outage has affected users in 74 countries.

Microsoft has confirmed that the incident was not caused by a cybersecurity attack, although the exact cause of the disruption remains unclear.

A technology expert speaking to the BBC described the situation as “incredible incompetence” if the disruption was not the result of a cyberattack.

The outage has also affected other technology companies, with OpenAI and Anthropic reporting problems linked to the disruption.

Microsoft 365 applications are used by more than 430 million people worldwide, highlighting the potential scale of the disruption for businesses, organisations and individual users.

Microsoft has not yet provided a confirmed timeline for the full restoration of affected services.