Microsoft 365 Services Experience Widespread Outage, Affecting Thousands
On January 22, 2026, Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook and Teams, faced a significant outage across North America, impacting thousands of users.
On January 22, 2026, Microsoft 365 services experienced a significant outage across North America, affecting thousands of users. The disruption began around 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with users reporting issues accessing Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications.
Microsoft acknowledged the problem, stating that a portion of its service infrastructure in North America was not processing traffic as expected. The company initiated efforts to restore the affected infrastructure to a healthy state and directed traffic to alternate systems to achieve recovery.
By 4:14 p.m. Eastern Time, Microsoft reported that it had restored the affected infrastructure but noted that further load balancing was required to mitigate the impact fully. Users were advised to monitor the Microsoft 365 Admin Center or status page for continued updates.
As of late Thursday afternoon, some users continued to experience issues accessing Microsoft 365 tools, with reports of being unable to send or receive emails. Microsoft did not immediately provide a timeline for full restoration of services.
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