Microsoft restores most services after global outage affecting 74 countries

Microsoft reported most services back online Friday after a global outage disrupted Outlook, Teams, and Copilot for nearly 18 hours, affecting users across at least 74 countries. The company confirmed full recovery for consumer products at 4:10 p.m. UTC, with enterprise services showing sustained recovery. Microsoft apologized, stating the cause was a technical issue from a network capacity upgrade, not a cyberattack or AI-related incident. The outage impacted businesses, schools, government agencies, and airlines, with Downdetector reporting Outlook complaints peaking at 138,058. Microsoft is monitoring email backlogs and will publish a detailed post-incident report after completing its review.