Outlook Business Desk
Microsoft 365 faced a major service disruption on January 22, affecting access to key apps like Outlook and Teams. Users across regions reported email delays, login failures and performance issues, raising concerns over whether Microsoft 365 was still down.
However, the company said it has restored the affected infrastructure to a healthy state, but traffic rebalancing is still underway. Engineers are redistributing traffic across systems to reduce residual impact and ensure Microsoft 365 services return to stable, expected performance.
Microsoft earlier confirmed that parts of its service infrastructure were not processing traffic correctly. This triggered widespread access and performance issues across multiple Microsoft 365 products, impacting both individual users and organisations.
Complaints surged quickly as thousands of users flagged issues on Downdetector and social media. Reports highlighted failed logins, delayed emails and apps not loading. The spike showed how widely the disruption affected both individual users and workplaces.
Outlook users reported the biggest problems during the outage. Many said emails failed to arrive or send, while others faced repeated login failures. Error messages linked to temporary server issues appeared during delivery attempts, disrupting day-to-day communication.
Microsoft Teams users also faced connection issues and message delays. Meetings, chats and collaboration tools stopped working smoothly, affecting remote work and internal communication. Desktop and web apps struggled to load, adding to user frustration during work hours.
Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview showed access problems during the outage. Users reported trouble opening dashboards and monitoring tools, raising concerns for organisations relying on these platforms for security oversight and compliance during active workdays.
Microsoft Store also faced disruptions as users struggled with sign-ins and downloads. While not work-critical for all users, the outage added to the broader picture of multiple Microsoft services failing at the same time due to infrastructure issues.