Microsoft confirms global Outlook outage affecting Microsoft 365 services

Microsoft is experiencing a worldwide outage affecting Outlook and potentially other Microsoft 365 services, with users unable to access email or send messages on Thursday. The company has confirmed the incident and is working to resolve it. Microsoft attributed the issue to elevated load on parts of its infrastructure and unexpected server unavailability, which has overloaded remaining systems. Initial mitigation efforts, including traffic redistribution, deployment halts, and server restarts, have not yet produced the desired results. Reports on Downdetector have increased as affected users flag problems. Microsoft continues exploring alternatives to boost system capacity, but has not provided a definitive timeline for full recovery.