Microsoft is fixing a massive global outage for its popular workplace software that dragged on into a second day, disrupting everything from emails to police emergency calls and AI tools.
asserted
that → fix → calls
A wide range of Microsoft 365 services including Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot were affected.
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range → include → Outlook
Microsoft first flagged the problem on Thursday.
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Microsoft → flag → Thursday
It indicated that it was making some headway as it tried to restore services in fresh updates posted Friday on social media.
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it → indicate → media
The extent of the outage wasn’t clear but the company said in January that it had more than 450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions.
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it → say → subscriptions
Microsoft says progress is being made
The company indicated that its recovery efforts were making progress Friday, saying it was “seeing early stabilization and capacity improvements,” and that there was “incremental improvement in several workloads.”
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it → say → workloads
But problems appeared to persist, according to an outage tracking site, status reports from organizations that depend on the company’s services and anecdotal reports on social media.
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that → appear → media
The Microsoft outage means no incessant email chimes or message pings, but still we stayed online
It was the sound of e-silence.
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It → mean → silence
No Microsoft Outlook email chimes, no Teams message pings, no new notifications and, very possibly, no work getting done.
Microsoft 365 teetered on the edge of becoming Microsoft 364 as the global outage stretched from Thursday into, ironically (or fittingly, depending on your personal outlook), Friday the 13th.
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outage → do → 13th
The disruption has impacted an unknown number of netizens, but the total could be as high as 450 million — the figure the tech giant touts as the number of paid customers of the Microsoft 365 apps.
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giant → impact → apps
Many of us were doing the same thing: Refresh, refresh, refresh.
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Many → do → thing
But what really happens when an essential workplace tool goes quiet, and the silence is heard around the world?
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silence → happen → world
Sadly, it seems, the extended break online did not mean that we went outside — or even offline.
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we → seem → ?
Thousands used the 21st century technology of social media to complain about the 20th century invention of email.
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Thousands → use → email
Memes sprang up across the internet as brands like airlines rushed to capitalize early Friday on an unexpected long weekend.
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brands → spring → weekend
The British government said it’s ’working closely; with Microsoft to assess any impact on public services
It also said that “robust contingency plans” are in place to minimize disruption.
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plans → say → disruption
So far, the outages do not appear to have caused much of a problem to frontline services beyond the absence of emails.
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outages → appear → emails
Police forces have said they are unable to receive crime reports online and are urging people to call emergency responders to make any urgent reports.
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they → say → reports
The National Pharmacy Association also said there may be delays for some to get their prescriptions, as the outage is affecting the email systems of the state-run National Health Services.
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outage → say → Services
Hospitals have meanwhile urged patients to attend appointments as normal.
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Hospitals → urge → appointments
Companies and government agencies face interruptions in their operations
1.
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Companies → face → operations
Air India said its flight operations were unaffected by the global Microsoft outage.
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operations → say → outage
However, it temporarily rerouted its email services to ensure customer queries continued to reach the airline without interruption, the company said in a statement.
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company → reroute → statement
IndiGo, another Indian airline company, said it also reported disruptions to its email support services, which affected its ability to receive customer queries.
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which → say → queries
The airline in a statement on X said its other support channels remained operational and its flight operations were unaffected.
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operations → say → X
Singapore’s Government Technology Agency said that government emails were down and that the agency is working with Microsoft to resolve the issue.
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agency → say → issue
The Philippines’ Supreme Court said in a statement on X that the ongoing Microsoft 365 service outage has affected some of its operations, including email responses.
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outage → say → responses
In Japan, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki said the outage impacted the government’s IT infrastructure and that they were “keeping a close eye on the developments.”
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they → say → developments
Japanese authorities had taken steps, including securing alternative communication tools such as telephones, the government said.
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government → take → telephones
Governments, businesses from Japan to Australia affected
U.S.-based industrial technology company Workhorse Group Inc. delayed a conference call for its quarterly earnings because of the outage.
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Inc. → affect → outage
In Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Friday that Microsoft had likened the widespread outage to the CrowdStrike outage in 2024.
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Microsoft → say → 2024
Burke said he had spoken to Microsoft’s top executive in Australia and the government’s national cybersecurity coordinator about the global disruption.
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he → say → disruption
“They (Microsoft) don’t believe they are dealing with a cyberattack.
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they → believe → cyberattack
They believe that they are dealing in some ways (with something) similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry,” Burke told reporters in Sydney.
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Burke → believe → Sydney
In July 2024, a massive global tech outage grounded flights, disrupted hospitals, banks and retailers, with Texas-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike blaming a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows that allowed its systems to push bad data out to millions of customer machines.
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systems → ground → machines
Microsoft scrambles to recover services
The Redmond, Washington-based company said it was trying different ways to identify the cause of the problem and get its servers back online, using “a measured approach to identify and repair affected infrastructure.”
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it → scramble → infrastructure
Over 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft said on its website.
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Microsoft → use → website
Roughly 130,000 users from dozens of countries reported problems accessing Outlook on the outage tracker Downdetector on Thursday, although reports have since declined.
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reports → report → Thursday
A series of posts by the company on X suggested its engineers were struggling to get the problem fully under control.
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problem → suggest → control
Hours after saying it managed to successfully restore service health and functionality, the company said it had updated its list of impacted services and was continuing to address the issue.
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it → say → issue
…and 3 more, not listed.
The Aporia
