Microsoft services begin recovering after global outage hits 74 countries

Microsoft services were recovering on Friday after a global outage that disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot for more than a day across 74 countries. The incident, which began around 16:00 GMT on Thursday, left businesses, government agencies and individuals struggling to communicate.

The company said the outage was caused by overloaded servers that became “unexpectedly available,” and ruled out any cyberattack or malicious activity. “We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected infrastructure,” Microsoft said in a statement, adding that email queues were “significantly reduced and approaching normal levels.”

The disruption affected courts, pharmacies and government bodies worldwide. Norway’s parliament and several ministries lost email access, while 80 to 90 Danish municipalities were impacted. In the UK, the National Health Service temporarily reverted to paper records. Rail operators in Germany, the UK and Canada reported issues with timetables and emailed tickets, and foreign banks in Taiwan resorted to fax machines to send data overseas.

By midday Friday, Microsoft said services were improving across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific, though some remained spotty. The outage – one of the longest in the company’s history and its second this year – underscored how deeply institutions and economies rely on a handful of cloud providers. Analysts noted that the true scale of the communication risk extends beyond individual workers to critical government infrastructure.

Microsoft’s stock remained largely flat on Wall Street, as the company pledged to review the incident and implement measures to prevent future disruptions. For users in the Gulf and beyond, the gradual restoration offered relief, but the episode served as a stark reminder of the fragility of digital dependence.