Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook, Teams, and Copilot for over 12 hours

Microsoft is experiencing a global outage affecting Outlook, Teams, and Copilot for over 12 hours, disrupting users worldwide, including governments in Australia, India, and Japan. Microsoft says the issue is not a cyberattack. The outage stems from an "elevated load" caused by servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable, straining remaining infrastructure. OpenAI also reported issues with Microsoft connectors. Microsoft executive vice president Charles Lamanna confirmed no indication of malicious activity and apologized for disruptions. Downdetector first showed UK issues around 6:15pm Thursday, with problems continuing into Friday. Microsoft has tried isolating infrastructure and shifting traffic, but changes are "not taking as expected." The outage affects users in 74 countries, mainly in the Americas.