Microsoft says it's making progress on fixing one of its longest-running outages

Microsoft Corp. said it was making progress to restore access to its flagship software and end the outage that has paralyzed government offices, merchants and businesses worldwide.

The company said in an update posted around 9 a.m. New York time that it was seeing improved service availability, “with email queues significantly reduced and nearing normal levels.” Still, the company warned that users of more than 20 products and services may still experience bugs.

That includes Outlook, Teams and AI tool Copilot, whose users experienced a second day of missed meeting invitations and unresponsive websites on Friday. Previous disruptions rarely lasted more than a few hours.

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Microsoft said the underlying process on some servers was overwhelmed, causing them to become unresponsive. The exact technical cause has not been determined, and the company said it has no evidence of malicious activity.

Among the affected services were Outlook, Teams, and Copilot, along with other Microsoft 365 products and services. Users also reported issues with email, calendars, workplace apps, and cloud services.

Microsoft announced improvements, including reducing email queues to near-normal levels, but warned that users of more than 20 products and services may still encounter errors. It did not give a specific time for a full recovery.

Organizations reported email and communication disruptions, and some business operations were delayed or delayed. Government agencies in several countries also faced problems accessing emails or services.

Microsoft said there was no evidence of malicious activity behind the breach. The company has not yet identified the exact technical cause.

The company has provided nearly hourly updates on its efforts to repair its broken systems and redirect user traffic away from affected servers since the problems began Thursday afternoon, occasionally pointing to signs of recovery that have proven fleeting. It was unclear what caused the outage, though the company described the “core process” on some servers as being overwhelmed, causing them to become completely unresponsive. Initial efforts to identify the problem and deploy a fix were thwarted by additional server errors.

Microsoft said it would provide more details after the outage ended, adding that there was no evidence of malicious activity.

The stock was down less than 1% when markets opened in New York on Friday.

Companies relying on Microsoft systems, including Swiss luxury group Richemont and U.S. truck and bus maker Workhorse Group Inc., had to delay publishing results this week. Richemont has since filed his report.

PVH Corp., the clothing conglomerate that owns the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, announced Thursday that it will cut about 4% of its global workforce. Some of the difficult talks scheduled to begin in Asia on Friday morning did not take place because of the outages, leaving employees uncertain about their futures at the company, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous to describe private matters. PVH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The outage shows the ubiquity of Microsoft’s email, chat and business software and is another example of the risks of relying on a small number of providers of critical technologies. While most glitches are fixed quickly, faulty updates and server problems at one key technology provider can spread throughout the global economy. A 15-hour Amazon Web Services outage last year affected hundreds of websites. A flawed software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. in 2024, it blocked flights and crashed systems around the world, causing billions of dollars in damage.

“The technology market is concentrated among a few providers who provide the majority of services, and we take those services for granted,” said Stefano Mele, a Rome-based senior lawyer at Gianni & Origoni who specializes in cybersecurity. “This concentration of hardware, software and IT services can cause a problem when there are no backup services provided by other providers who are based in different parts of the world and operate under different national flags.”

Users in more than 70 countries have reported problems accessing Microsoft products, according to Downdetector, which has recorded hundreds of thousands of complaints. Cyber security software, file sharing services and management tools were also compromised. The company sells these products along with workplace essentials such as Word and Excel in a bundle under the M365 brand. The package has more than 450 million commercial users, the company said last month.

In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service had to reschedule some procedures after the outage affected communications, people familiar with the matter said. Guy’s and St. Thomas’ have warned patients that the email is offline, although the London hospital’s procedures are running as planned. A number of local police forces have also said they cannot post crime reports online, according to the Guardian.

Traders in Singapore, Indian brokers and officials in Tokyo also reported problems with Microsoft services on Friday. Euronext sent a warning that its email communication is unavailable.

Japan’s finance ministry said in a statement that it was unable to receive emails for most of the day. Without access to their email, government departments resorted to posting paper notices to inform journalists of the day’s schedule.

Staff at the Reserve Bank of Australia were also affected, with the outlook downgraded across the bank’s departments, but critical operations continued as normal. In New Zealand, immigration officials have suspended all visa applications.