Microsoft works to resolve global outage affecting Outlook, Teams and Copilot
Microsoft said its latest attempts to restore several cloud services have not succeeded, as users in Australia and elsewhere continue to experience email and collaboration tool disruptions.
Microsoft announced that recent efforts to fix a worldwide outage impacting tens of thousands of users have not restored service as expected. The company said it is evaluating alternative workstreams to increase capacity and address traffic-management imbalances.
The outage has disrupted Australian schools, universities, businesses and government agencies, preventing access to email, Microsoft Teams and the Copilot AI assistant. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft does not believe the incident was caused by a cyberattack, likening it to a previous update error that affected CrowdStrike services.
Down Detector recorded a peak of almost 130,000 reports globally, with more than 5,500 Australian users reporting issues by mid-morning. Affected services listed by Microsoft include Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint, Copilot 365, Defender XDR, Planner, To Do, Intune, Defender for Office 365, multiple Purview functions, Power BI, the 365 Apps Admin Centre, Universal Print and Windows 365 configurations.
Triple Zero emergency services confirmed they remain operational, and Melbourne Airport reported no impact on flights, although some confirmation emails may be delayed. Queensland Health said no clinical services were affected and business-continuity plans were activated where needed.
Universities such as Adelaide and Charles Sturt reported that staff and students could not send or receive emails, hindering routine tasks that rely on email authentication. Services NSW advised customers to postpone in-person visits and use online channels where possible.
Microsoft said servers it attempted to restart were becoming unresponsive again and that it is analysing diagnostic data with networking and platform experts. The company is temporarily limiting certain traffic types to isolate the cause and rebuilding a subset of servers with a prior software configuration to test stability.
Authorities warned the outage could be exploited by scammers. Martin Latimer, head of financial crimes and cyber resilience at the Customer Owned Banking Association, urged the public to remain vigilant against unsolicited calls, emails or messages that claim to fix the problem or request sensitive information.