Microsoft 365 Restored After 24-Hour Global Outage Caused by Bad Update

Microsoft 365 services are mostly restored after a 24-hour global outage, caused by a technical issue during a network capacity upgrade, not a cyberattack or AI, the company confirmed. The outage began Thursday afternoon on the East Coast and spread to over 70 countries, disrupting Outlook, Teams, and Copilot for businesses, governments, and millions of users. Microsoft extended email queue times to 48 hours to ensure delayed messages are delivered. Users may face a flood of notifications as systems recover, and the full impact remains unclear, with disruptions reported across airlines, hospitals, and emergency services. The incident highlights global reliance on a single provider for critical infrastructure.