Microsoft outage updates: Global issue hits courts and schools - follow live

Microsoft says it's seeing "improvements" , with email queues "approaching normal levels", after a global outage hit Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot

Microsoft says it's seeing "improvements" , with email queues "approaching normal levels", after a global outage hit Teams, Outlook and AI software Copilot

The company says there's no evidence of "malicious activity" and users may still have "intermittent access issues" - more than 20 hours since the outage began, our tech reporter explains the glitches your inbox may still be experiencing

The company says there's no evidence of "malicious activity" and users may still have "intermittent access issues" - more than 20 hours since the outage began, our tech reporter explains the glitches your inbox may still be experiencing

NHS England says the outage is "inevitably" disrupting staff but appointments can continue; schools have been asking parents to get in touch via phone; US federal government and court systems are also reporting issues

NHS England says the outage is "inevitably" disrupting staff but appointments can continue; schools have been asking parents to get in touch via phone; US federal government and court systems are also reporting issues

How many people are affected? What has the UK government said? We answer your questions

How many people are affected? What has the UK government said? We answer your questions

South African winemaker Peter Pentz tells us communication with exporters has been brought "to a standstill". Meanwhile, a group in London say they left the office because if emails weren't working "it was time to go to the pub"

South African winemaker Peter Pentz tells us communication with exporters has been brought "to a standstill". Meanwhile, a group in London say they left the office because if emails weren't working "it was time to go to the pub"

Have you been affected?

Edited by Jamie Whitehead and Manish Pandey, with technology reporters Tom Gerken, Shiona McCallum and Laura Cress

Harry Farley Political correspondent We are chasing Whitehall departments for how government services are affected. But I'm told UK intelligence operations are unaffected by the outage. While some elements of the security services use Microsoft, there is a separate system for anything secret and that has not been hit by the issue. sharing

Harry Farley Political correspondent

We are chasing Whitehall departments for how government services are affected. But I'm told UK intelligence operations are unaffected by the outage.

While some elements of the security services use Microsoft, there is a separate system for anything secret and that has not been hit by the issue.

The knock-on effects of the latest Microsoft outage "hammer " the point of companies needing a contingency plan to communicate when such incidents occur, a global cyber-security advisor has said. Jake Moore of cyber-security firm ESET tells Radio 4's Today programme the issue originates from several computers being down and other computers having to cope with the excess traffic. "Just like on a motorway when you block one lane, you have to put all of the excess traffic through just one or two lanes and then everything goes and backs up, it slows down," he says. Moore says some companies use a particular set of servers in one part of the world while others use servers elsewhere, which is the reason why some users may be noticing their Teams account is working but their emails are not updating. sharing

The knock-on effects of the latest Microsoft outage "hammer " the point of companies needing a contingency plan to communicate when such incidents occur, a global cyber-security advisor has said.

Jake Moore of cyber-security firm ESET tells Radio 4's Today programme the issue originates from several computers being down and other computers having to cope with the excess traffic.

"Just like on a motorway when you block one lane, you have to put all of the excess traffic through just one or two lanes and then everything goes and backs up, it slows down," he says.

Moore says some companies use a particular set of servers in one part of the world while others use servers elsewhere, which is the reason why some users may be noticing their Teams account is working but their emails are not updating.

Microsoft says it is "seeing positive results" for service stability and increased capacity as it continues to work on fixing the outage. Microsoft says that it's now "implementing these actions more broadly across affected regions". It adds it will continue to monitor progress and expand it to servers supporting "active regions coming online". Earlier, we heard that the problem was caused by an overloading of certain servers after others had failed. sharing

Microsoft says it is "seeing positive results" for service stability and increased capacity as it continues to work on fixing the outage.

Microsoft says that it's now "implementing these actions more broadly across affected regions".

It adds it will continue to monitor progress and expand it to servers supporting "active regions coming online".

Earlier, we heard that the problem was caused by an overloading of certain servers after others had failed.

Microsoft have not said how many people are currently affected by the outage to some of its services, although we know the company has around 430 million users globally. Downdetector is an internet monitoring website where users can report issues with specific sites. For example, at around 07:00 GMT, they received at least 43,000 reports of issues with Microsoft Outlook, an email and calendar application, across 72 countries. The real figure affected is likely much higher, as this number just shows us the people who went to the website to report the issue. Toggling between countries on Downdetector showed spikes in reports in many European countries, where people are now waking up. There were also fewer reports in countries in Asia and the Pacific regions as night falls and people head to bed. sharing

Microsoft have not said how many people are currently affected by the outage to some of its services, although we know the company has around 430 million users globally.

Downdetector is an internet monitoring website where users can report issues with specific sites.

For example, at around 07:00 GMT, they received at least 43,000 reports of issues with Microsoft Outlook, an email and calendar application, across 72 countries.

The real figure affected is likely much higher, as this number just shows us the people who went to the website to report the issue.

Toggling between countries on Downdetector showed spikes in reports in many European countries, where people are now waking up. There were also fewer reports in countries in Asia and the Pacific regions as night falls and people head to bed.

Microsoft has said in its latest update it is seeing "marginal success" in its attempts to fix the problem - but it remains unclear what is behind it. The company said earlier the issue had been caused by a number of its servers - powerful computers that process tasks like work tools and other apps - being unexpectedly unavailable, straining the remaining infrastructure. It says it is not aware of any malicious activity causing the incident and will give full details of "the root cause" once it has been mitigated in a post-incident report. "We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution," it says. sharing

Microsoft has said in its latest update it is seeing "marginal success" in its attempts to fix the problem - but it remains unclear what is behind it.

The company said earlier the issue had been caused by a number of its servers - powerful computers that process tasks like work tools and other apps - being unexpectedly unavailable, straining the remaining infrastructure.

It says it is not aware of any malicious activity causing the incident and will give full details of "the root cause" once it has been mitigated in a post-incident report.

"We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution," it says.

Microsoft says it has observed "marginal success" in its latest efforts to treat the incident. The company has said in its latest update that is it continuing to monitor activity across regions to evaluate server status and determine what actions it can take to improve capacity. It says this consists of reviewing server performance as well as confirming developed patches have been applied, and are working as intended after infrastructure reboots are completed. sharing

Microsoft says it has observed "marginal success" in its latest efforts to treat the incident.

The company has said in its latest update that is it continuing to monitor activity across regions to evaluate server status and determine what actions it can take to improve capacity.

It says this consists of reviewing server performance as well as confirming developed patches have been applied, and are working as intended after infrastructure reboots are completed.

Osmond Chia Business reporter The Microsoft outage highlights the risks of relying on a single technology provider for critical operations, which can be brought to a standstill in the event of an IT issue, says Nicky Choo from cyber-security firm Mimecast. His firm, which uses Microsoft tools, is able to continue work as they have alternative platforms to turn to. "Businesses should review that dependence and build in alternatives, with clear contingency plans to keep essential operations running during an outage," Choo says. With Microsoft services down, some people have had to improvise at work. Yazid Ahmad, a communications consultant, says he has been sending emails to other firms through their personal e-mails that are on other tech platforms like Gmail. "Its the first time I had to do that. I'm sure so many others are doing a similar thing," Yazid says. "But I simply wouldn't know if I miss an important email." sharing

Osmond Chia Business reporter

The Microsoft outage highlights the risks of relying on a single technology provider for critical operations, which can be brought to a standstill in the event of an IT issue, says Nicky Choo from cyber-security firm Mimecast.

His firm, which uses Microsoft tools, is able to continue work as they have alternative platforms to turn to.

"Businesses should review that dependence and build in alternatives, with clear contingency plans to keep essential operations running during an outage," Choo says.

With Microsoft services down, some people have had to improvise at work.

Yazid Ahmad, a communications consultant, says he has been sending emails to other firms through their personal e-mails that are on other tech platforms like Gmail.

"Its the first time I had to do that. I'm sure so many others are doing a similar thing," Yazid says. "But I simply wouldn't know if I miss an important email."

Microsoft has been working to fix a global outage with some of its services, including Teams, Outlook and its artificial intelligence software Copilot experiencing "connectivity problems". This is what we know at the moment: First reports: Thursday saw a surge of reports of issues with Microsoft services on monitoring website Downdetector. At around 18:00 GMT, nearly 140,000 people had flagged problems with Outlook - more than 2,000 times the normal level The cause: Microsoft says the cause was "elevated load" on its infrastructure - meaning servers had higher-than-normal stress. In this case, some servers became "unexpectedly unavailable", overloading the others Ripple effect: Because Microsoft infrastructure is used by other tech companies, we're also seeing knock-on effects with companies like OpenAI and Anthropic reporting issues with their tools Struggles to fix: The technology conglomerate first said it was "seeing positive results" in its efforts to restart services. But, several hours later, it said in a subsequent update that the fixes weren't taking "as expected" and it was still fixing issues on multiple fronts No signs it was malicious: Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna said this is not a cyber-security incident. An expert told the BBC earlier that the outage looked like "incredible incompetence" The scale of the impact: From government systems in Singapore and Japan , to Australian spy agencies and Filipino Supreme Court communications - the outage's effects are being felt in at least 74 countries across the world sharing

Microsoft has been working to fix a global outage with some of its services, including Teams, Outlook and its artificial intelligence software Copilot experiencing "connectivity problems". This is what we know at the moment:

First reports: Thursday saw a surge of reports of issues with Microsoft services on monitoring website Downdetector. At around 18:00 GMT, nearly 140,000 people had flagged problems with Outlook - more than 2,000 times the normal level

The cause: Microsoft says the cause was "elevated load" on its infrastructure - meaning servers had higher-than-normal stress. In this case, some servers became "unexpectedly unavailable", overloading the others

Ripple effect: Because Microsoft infrastructure is used by other tech companies, we're also seeing knock-on effects with companies like OpenAI and Anthropic reporting issues with their tools

Struggles to fix: The technology conglomerate first said it was "seeing positive results" in its efforts to restart services. But, several hours later, it said in a subsequent update that the fixes weren't taking "as expected" and it was still fixing issues on multiple fronts

No signs it was malicious: Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna said this is not a cyber-security incident. An expert told the BBC earlier that the outage looked like "incredible incompetence"

The scale of the impact: From government systems in Singapore and Japan , to Australian spy agencies and Filipino Supreme Court communications - the outage's effects are being felt in at least 74 countries across the world

Osmond Chia Business reporter Individuals and organisations around the world are reporting that their e-mails and Microsoft productivity apps are down. Just to give a sense of the scale of the issue, reports of issues with Microsoft Outlook peaked globally at more than 130,000 complaints at around 18:00 GMT on Thursday, according to monitoring website Downdetector. The website collects crowd-sourced reports of outages from everyday users, helping people quickly determine if a platform is experiencing issues. Even now, Downdetector's alerts indicate Microsoft platforms like 365 and Outlook "show problems" based on user reports. The disruption has now lasted for a minimum of 14 hours, impacting work across the majority of the Asian business day. Now as Europe prepares to head to work, Microsoft is under pressure to restore its platforms. sharing

Osmond Chia Business reporter

Individuals and organisations around the world are reporting that their e-mails and Microsoft productivity apps are down.

Just to give a sense of the scale of the issue, reports of issues with Microsoft Outlook peaked globally at more than 130,000 complaints at around 18:00 GMT on Thursday, according to monitoring website Downdetector.

The website collects crowd-sourced reports of outages from everyday users, helping people quickly determine if a platform is experiencing issues.

Even now, Downdetector's alerts indicate Microsoft platforms like 365 and Outlook "show problems" based on user reports.

The disruption has now lasted for a minimum of 14 hours, impacting work across the majority of the Asian business day.

Now as Europe prepares to head to work, Microsoft is under pressure to restore its platforms.

Rachita Prasad Reporting from Mumbai India’s biggest airline says the outage has impacted its email support services. IndiGo, which accounts for over 60% of the domestic aviation market, said in a statement that it is not getting emails and asked travellers to use other support channels. The country's second-largest airline, Air India, used the opportunity to promote its flights. "Emails can wait. The world has been waiting long enough. Consider this your cue to plan that getaway," Air India said on X. sharing

Rachita Prasad Reporting from Mumbai

India’s biggest airline says the outage has impacted its email support services.

IndiGo, which accounts for over 60% of the domestic aviation market, said in a statement that it is not getting emails and asked travellers to use other support channels.

The country's second-largest airline, Air India, used the opportunity to promote its flights. "Emails can wait. The world has been waiting long enough. Consider this your cue to plan that getaway," Air India said on X.

Microsoft troubles are also disrupting the functioning of judiciaries around the world. The Philippines Supreme Court has warned that "responses to emails and other transactions may be delayed". Singapore's courts also say they're "experiencing issues with incoming and outgoing emails", urging people to them by telephone for urgent matters. Courts in North America, from Los Angeles to Texas to Alberta, have also issued their own statements warning that communications may be delayed. sharing

Microsoft troubles are also disrupting the functioning of judiciaries around the world.

The Philippines Supreme Court has warned that "responses to emails and other transactions may be delayed".

Singapore's courts also say they're "experiencing issues with incoming and outgoing emails", urging people to them by telephone for urgent matters.

Courts in North America, from Los Angeles to Texas to Alberta, have also issued their own statements warning that communications may be delayed.

Helen Davidson Live reporter Australia's spy and federal police agencies have also been affected by the outage, though officials have suggested the impact is minimal. “The impact that they are dealing with is very much on email system", head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, told reporters. Other Australian public service providers also confirmed that they have been affected by the outage, but similarly say this is mostly limited to emails, and the BBC understands there were no major impacts across New South Wales' (NSW) primary services in health, education, transport, and emergency services. A NSW government spokesperson has told me agencies were working to restore affected services and that "workarounds" were being implemented in physical service centres - some of which were reportedly closed earlier today because of the outage. sharing

Helen Davidson Live reporter

Australia's spy and federal police agencies have also been affected by the outage, though officials have suggested the impact is minimal.

“The impact that they are dealing with is very much on email system", head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, told reporters.

Other Australian public service providers also confirmed that they have been affected by the outage, but similarly say this is mostly limited to emails, and the BBC understands there were no major impacts across New South Wales' (NSW) primary services in health, education, transport, and emergency services.

A NSW government spokesperson has told me agencies were working to restore affected services and that "workarounds" were being implemented in physical service centres - some of which were reportedly closed earlier today because of the outage.

Microsoft has in its latest statement said it is still working to fix the outage. "We're continuing to work on recovering our frontend servers while implementing further traffic optimisation actions to improve service stability and increase capacity," it said in a post on X. Nearly two hours ago, the company said it was seeing "partial recovery" across regions but that its actions were not "resulting in sustained recovery". sharing

Microsoft has in its latest statement said it is still working to fix the outage.

"We're continuing to work on recovering our frontend servers while implementing further traffic optimisation actions to improve service stability and increase capacity," it said in a post on X.

Nearly two hours ago, the company said it was seeing "partial recovery" across regions but that its actions were not "resulting in sustained recovery".

Laura Bicker China correspondent Here in Beijing, we are also affected by the Microsoft Outlook and Teams outage. This is particularly frustrating as access to so many Western internet services are already restricted. Most Chinese firms use software that has been made in China - WPS Office is a favourite. But Outlook is one of the few reliable channels for many offices and businesses in the country who work with colleagues across the world. China operates one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of internet censorship known as the Great Firewall which restricts access to many Western websites including Google, and Instagram along with many international news organisations including the BBC. So battling with technology is not new to most of us living here. But some netizens on Chinese social media who do use Outlook are looking on the bright side of the disruption. "Thanks to Microsoft we can have our weekend earlier,” wrote one. sharing

Laura Bicker China correspondent

Here in Beijing, we are also affected by the Microsoft Outlook and Teams outage.

This is particularly frustrating as access to so many Western internet services are already restricted.

Most Chinese firms use software that has been made in China - WPS Office is a favourite.

But Outlook is one of the few reliable channels for many offices and businesses in the country who work with colleagues across the world.

China operates one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of internet censorship known as the Great Firewall which restricts access to many Western websites including Google, and Instagram along with many international news organisations including the BBC. So battling with technology is not new to most of us living here.

But some netizens on Chinese social media who do use Outlook are looking on the bright side of the disruption.

"Thanks to Microsoft we can have our weekend earlier,” wrote one.

The Japanese government says its shared IT platform has also been disrupted by the Microsoft outage. "We understand that Microsoft is working to restore services, and we will continue to monitor the company’s response," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki told reporters earlier today. Digital Minister Toshiharu Furukawa said that the various agencies that use Outlook "have secured multiple alternative means of communication, such as telephone, chat tools and text messages". With these methods, "government operations are continuing without disruption". sharing

The Japanese government says its shared IT platform has also been disrupted by the Microsoft outage.

"We understand that Microsoft is working to restore services, and we will continue to monitor the company’s response," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki told reporters earlier today.

Digital Minister Toshiharu Furukawa said that the various agencies that use Outlook "have secured multiple alternative means of communication, such as telephone, chat tools and text messages".

With these methods, "government operations are continuing without disruption".

In 2024, a faulty software update distributed by cyber-security firm CrowdStrike crashed thousands of Microsoft Windows devices globally - in what is one of the largest IT disruptions in history. The IT issue led to thousands of flights being grounded, took emergency services offline and halted some banking operations as computers went down. Microsoft had then said that it estimated that 8.5m computers around the world were disabled by the outage, which took several days for affected companies to patch. sharing

In 2024, a faulty software update distributed by cyber-security firm CrowdStrike crashed thousands of Microsoft Windows devices globally - in what is one of the largest IT disruptions in history.

The IT issue led to thousands of flights being grounded, took emergency services offline and halted some banking operations as computers went down.

Microsoft had then said that it estimated that 8.5m computers around the world were disabled by the outage, which took several days for affected companies to patch.

It's been an eventful time in the tech world - and not in a good way. One of the world's most valuable companies as a result of the AI boom, Nvidia lost $550bn (£415bn) in stock market value in just five days as after a scandal involving its now-ex CEO Jensen Huang dominated the headlines. In the latest development, Jensen Huang (pictured) quit as chief executive of AI chipmaking giant Nvidia after revelations of alleged extramarital affairs. That came after global stock markets tumbled after investors sold tech shares on fears that the US midterm elections would slow the development of artificial intelligence (AI). The sell-off, which started in the US and then spread to Asia and Europe, has seen trillions of dollars wiped off the stock value of major tech firms. sharing

It's been an eventful time in the tech world - and not in a good way.

One of the world's most valuable companies as a result of the AI boom, Nvidia lost $550bn (£415bn) in stock market value in just five days as after a scandal involving its now-ex CEO Jensen Huang dominated the headlines.

In the latest development, Jensen Huang (pictured) quit as chief executive of AI chipmaking giant Nvidia after revelations of alleged extramarital affairs.

That came after global stock markets tumbled after investors sold tech shares on fears that the US midterm elections would slow the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

The sell-off, which started in the US and then spread to Asia and Europe, has seen trillions of dollars wiped off the stock value of major tech firms.

Rachita Prasad Reporting from Mumbai It’s past 11:00 local time in India and the outage is disrupting work for many, with emails not landing and Teams calls not going through smoothly. I spoke to some people working in the equity markets who said they panicked when they realised they couldn’t access daily research reports before their morning meeting where they make their big decisions of the day. "Outlook wasn't working. We fortunately have an alternative so it was not a problem. But we conduct most of our calls, especially with big clients, on Teams - that has been a challenge," a senior executive with a big Indian brokerage said on condition of anonymity. Indian companies which are set to report quarterly results today, and some who announced them earlier, are mostly in wait-and-watch mode as they have planned calls with investors and analysts. sharing

Rachita Prasad Reporting from Mumbai

It’s past 11:00 local time in India and the outage is disrupting work for many, with emails not landing and Teams calls not going through smoothly.

I spoke to some people working in the equity markets who said they panicked when they realised they couldn’t access daily research reports before their morning meeting where they make their big decisions of the day.

"Outlook wasn't working. We fortunately have an alternative so it was not a problem. But we conduct most of our calls, especially with big clients, on Teams - that has been a challenge," a senior executive with a big Indian brokerage said on condition of anonymity.

Indian companies which are set to report quarterly results today, and some who announced them earlier, are mostly in wait-and-watch mode as they have planned calls with investors and analysts.

Microsoft has attributed to the ongoing outage to "elevated load" on its infrastructure. The term refers to when computer servers are handling a much higher volume of stress than it usually does. In the case of the Microsoft outage, a large number of servers became "unexpectedly unavailable", which sent added traffic to remaining servers, straining these. sharing

Microsoft has attributed to the ongoing outage to "elevated load" on its infrastructure.

The term refers to when computer servers are handling a much higher volume of stress than it usually does.

In the case of the Microsoft outage, a large number of servers became "unexpectedly unavailable", which sent added traffic to remaining servers, straining these.

Data from monitoring site Downdetector suggests the outage has affected users and critical infrastructure across 74 countries and territories. This map shows its impact is largely concentrated in the Americas, Europe, and Australia. Large parts of Asia and Africa remain unaffected, according to Downdetector, which monitors outages based on users' reports. These include China and Russia, where the use of Microsoft applications is heavily restricted, or phased out in favour of domestic alternatives. However, there could also be a case of under-reporting in these countries, where Downdetector is among the websites blocked due to censorship. sharing

Data from monitoring site Downdetector suggests the outage has affected users and critical infrastructure across 74 countries and territories. This map shows its impact is largely concentrated in the Americas, Europe, and Australia.

Large parts of Asia and Africa remain unaffected, according to Downdetector, which monitors outages based on users' reports. These include China and Russia, where the use of Microsoft applications is heavily restricted, or phased out in favour of domestic alternatives.

However, there could also be a case of under-reporting in these countries, where Downdetector is among the websites blocked due to censorship.