Microsoft Services Go Down Worldwide, Thousands Unable To Access Outlook; OpenAI Also Affected

New Delhi: Technical glitches in many major Microsoft services on Thursday increased the problems of thousands of users. Many of the company's apps, including Microsoft 365, Outlook and Teams, were affected for more than five hours. The impact of this outage was not limited to Microsoft's platform only, but its impact was also seen on Microsoft connectors used in OpenAI and Anthropic's AI services. The company said that some servers had unexpectedly become unavailable, due to which users faced difficulty in using the services.

How many users were affected by the outage?

During the outage, most of the complaints came regarding Outlook. According to Downdetector data, Outlook-related complaints had increased to a peak of 1,38,058 at around 11:30 pm Indian time. Later their number reduced to about 34,490. Users faced problems accessing email and connecting to other services.

What did Microsoft say?

Microsoft said it is aware of the issues with Microsoft 365 services, particularly Exchange Online, and the technical team is investigating. According to the company, several servers became unexpectedly unavailable. Initial investigation said the reason for this was increased load and not the sudden increase in traffic.

What steps were taken to restore the server?

The company continued to bring the affected servers back online. Microsoft said that the servers that have been restored are currently stable. Apart from this, wherever possible, traffic is being sent to alternative routes. The company also said that users will see improvements in services as server capacity is gradually restored.

How were the services of OpenAI and Anthropic affected?

The Microsoft outage also affected the services of AI companies. OpenAI said it is investigating the issue related to Microsoft Connectors. This may have caused problems establishing new connections and some tools not working as expected.

At the same time, Anthropic also confirmed the problem in its Microsoft 365 Connector. According to the company, the service was affected due to a technical issue with its upstream provider. This incident made it clear that the impact of technical glitches in large cloud services can reach the platforms and AI tools of other companies.