Microsoft makes progress restoring Outlook and Teams

WASHINGTON: Microsoft said Friday that it was making progress in restoring Outlook, Teams and other services after a global outage disrupted work for businesses, government offices and pharmacies. Some users could still have trouble connecting as repairs continued, the company said.

Microsoft said the outage began at 11:17 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday. Downdetector, which tracks online service problems, recorded reports of email trouble starting around 12:21 p.m. Its data showed that the outage affected 74 countries within an hour. Microsoft ruled out a security breach and had yet to say what caused the disruption.

In the United States, the outage disrupted congressional offices and local governments. Austin, Texas, said Thursday evening that city employees could neither send nor receive email. It advised residents to call city offices if they needed help and to dial 911 in an emergency.

In Colorado, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said the Outlook outage affected the system people use to pay bail online. Anyone posting bail to secure someone’s immediate release had to go to the jail in person until Outlook was restored, the office said.

The disruption also slowed communication between pharmacies and doctors in the United Kingdom. The National Pharmacy Association warned on Friday that patients might face longer waits and that some prescriptions could be delayed. It asked patients to give pharmacy staff extra time while email problems continued.

Microsoft said its teams were working to restore access for people affected. They were also trying to clear the buildup of email waiting to be delivered. As that work continued on Friday, the company said some users might still find that their services worked only some of the time.