Thousands of users across North America were temporarily locked out of essential Microsoft tools on Thursday after a widespread technical glitch disrupted Outlook, Teams, and several other Microsoft 365 services, significantly affecting workplaces, schools, and remote workers.
The outage began early Thursday afternoon when users reported being unable to log in to Outlook, access their email, or open messages. Microsoft Teams, widely used for workplace communication and virtual meetings, also experienced significant disruptions, preventing users from joining calls or sending chat messages.
According to outage tracking websites, reports of problems surged rapidly as the afternoon progressed. At the peak of the disruption, more than 15,000 issues related to Microsoft 365 services were reported, highlighting the scale of the incident. Outlook and Teams were among the most affected platforms, though other services also showed signs of instability.
Microsoft acknowledged the issue on its official service status page, confirming that engineers were actively investigating and working to restore full functionality. The company later said the problem was linked to parts of its server infrastructure in North America that were not processing network traffic as expected. While Microsoft did not immediately disclose the root cause, it assured users that mitigation efforts were underway.
During the outage, many users encountered error messages when attempting to open email, schedule meetings, or launch Teams calls. As a result, employees and students were forced to find alternative ways to communicate. Some turned to text messages, personal email accounts, or third-party messaging apps to stay connected while Microsoft services were down.
The disruption was particularly challenging for schools and businesses that rely heavily on Microsoft 365. Teachers and administrative staff reported difficulties accessing class schedules, sharing materials, and communicating with students. Remote workers also struggled to collaborate, join meetings, or share documents, causing delays and interruptions to daily workflows.
In addition to Outlook and Teams, Microsoft confirmed that other Microsoft 365-related services were affected, including Defender security tools and the Microsoft Store. These issues made it harder for some users to receive security alerts, install updates, or access applications, raising concerns about broader system reliability during the outage.
By early Friday morning, Microsoft said that most services had been restored and were operating normally. However, the company noted that some users might continue to experience minor glitches as systems fully stabilized. Microsoft thanked customers for their patience and said it is reviewing system data to prevent similar disruptions in the future.
Industry experts say incidents like this highlight how dependent modern workplaces are on cloud-based services. Even short outages can disrupt productivity, delay communication, and create confusion when widely used digital tools suddenly become unavailable.
