Thousands of people couldn’t get their work done on Thursday afternoon when Microsoft’s popular suite of office tools suddenly went dark. The outage affected Microsoft 365, leaving users unable to access essential services like email and shared documents just as many workdays were winding down.
The scale of the problem was clear on the tracking website Downdetector.com. At the peak of the crash, more than 15,800 people logged on to report that their software was failing. By around 6:00 p.m. ET, that number had dropped to about 3,960, suggesting that the company was slowly getting a handle on the situation.
Microsoft eventually posted an update on its social media status page to explain what was happening. The company identified a specific part of its North American infrastructure that wasn’t processing data traffic as it should. To fix the headache, Microsoft started “rebalancing” the load, which basically meant moving the data traffic to other parts of their system that were still working correctly.
These types of outages are a massive deal because so many businesses, schools, and government agencies rely entirely on Microsoft’s cloud to function. When tools like Outlook or Teams stop working, everything from simple communication to major projects can grind to a halt.
While the number of error reports has fallen significantly, some users may still see glitches or slow loading times while Microsoft finishes its repairs. It serves as a stark reminder of how much we depend on just a few tech giants to keep our daily lives running smoothly.
