New York — A day of disruptions for Microsoft users worldwide may soon come to an end, as the tech giant announced substantial progress in resolving a major outage affecting its Outlook and Teams platforms. While most services were restored by Monday evening, Microsoft confirmed that full functionality is expected to return by Tuesday.
The outage, which began earlier in the day, left countless users grappling with delays in accessing essential communication tools. At its peak, Downdetector, a popular tracking platform for service disruptions, logged over 5,000 user-reported issues. While this figure illustrates the widespread nature of the problem, it does not fully capture the scale of the impact across global networks.
In a late-night update posted on X (formerly Twitter) around 11:00 p.m. ET, Microsoft reassured users, stating, “We’ve restored functionality for all impacted services except Outlook on the web, which is still affected for a small number of users. We’re monitoring and troubleshooting to fully recover.”
By mid-afternoon Monday, signs of recovery began to emerge. Microsoft implemented a fix that gradually restored service to a significant portion of affected users. Downdetector reports of outages declined sharply by the evening, reflecting improved accessibility for many customers. However, as of 7:30 p.m. ET, the company estimated it would still take another three hours to fully address the issue.
Earlier in the day, Microsoft had announced that its solution had reached approximately 98% of affected environments by noon. However, users continued to report difficulties as the fix propagated across networks. The company later acknowledged that the recovery process was unfolding more slowly than initially anticipated, particularly for a majority of users still facing delays. Updates from Microsoft around 2:00 p.m. ET indicated ongoing troubleshooting efforts, with no precise timeline available for complete restoration.
The outage had far-reaching effects, particularly among office workers who rely heavily on Outlook and Teams for communication and collaboration. While many expressed frustration over the disruption, some U.S. users took to social media to humorously embrace the unexpected break ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
This incident is the latest in a series of high-profile tech outages that have disrupted industries and affected millions of users globally in recent years. Although Microsoft’s situation was not as extensive as some past cases, it highlights the growing reliance on cloud-based tools for daily operations. Earlier this year, CrowdStrike experienced what has been deemed one of the largest IT outages in history, with its software issues halting air travel, disrupting hospital systems, and causing over $5 billion in direct losses for Fortune 500 companies.
As Microsoft works toward full recovery, this outage serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in digital infrastructures. For now, the company’s swift response and transparent communication have helped mitigate widespread frustration, offering users a glimmer of hope for a return to normalcy in the hours ahead.
This story has been updated to reflect the latest developments in Microsoft’s recovery efforts.
