Thousands hit by Microsoft 365 outage - Teams and Azure down

Digital network visualization symbolizes the widespread service disruptions affecting online platforms (Illustrative image - AI generated) Upday Stock Images

Thousands of users worldwide are experiencing major disruptions to Microsoft 365 services on Thursday morning. The widespread outages are affecting critical business applications including Microsoft Teams, Azure cloud services, and even the gaming platform Minecraft.

Downdetector reports show the scale of the problem escalating rapidly, with outage complaints jumping from just one at 7am to nearly 500 by 10am. The Microsoft Store and Microsoft 365 admin center are also experiencing significant issues.

Microsoft acknowledged the problems and is actively investigating the cause. The company said: "We're aware of issues accessing our health portals" and advised users to monitor updates on social media and their website's health portals.

Technical investigation underway

Microsoft provided a detailed statement about the scope of the disruption. The company said: "Users may be unable to access the admin center or leverage Microsoft Entra to access other Microsoft 365 services. We're investigating reports of an issue in which users may be unable to access the Microsoft 365 admin center or leverage Microsoft Entra to access other Microsoft 365 services."

According to Metro, Microsoft's investigation specifically focuses on load balancing infrastructure as the root cause of the widespread service failures. This technical approach suggests the problem lies in how Microsoft distributes user requests across its server network.

Dailystar.co.uk reports that authentication failures are preventing access to multiple interconnected Microsoft services. These authentication issues are creating a cascade effect, where users cannot access various Microsoft platforms due to login system problems.

Regional impact persists

Metro reports that issues persist in specific regions including France and broader Europe despite initial fix attempts. This suggests the technical problems are more complex than initially anticipated and may require additional time to resolve completely.

Microsoft has committed to providing the next update by Thursday, October 9, 2025, at 11:00 AM UTC. The company is reviewing dependent service pathways to identify appropriate investigating actions for restoring full functionality.

Sources used: "Metro", "dailystar.co.uk" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.