Microsoft outage hits US users blocking access to Outlook Teams and Office 365 services

Microsoft services across the U.S. have experienced widespread outages , preventing users from accessing emails, collaborating with colleagues, and carrying out essential work tasks. Thousands of users complained that they were unable to access their email services and flooded the company with tons of complaints ranging from failed launches to memory-intensive running as well as several other issues.

Users first began reporting that they were having issues with Microsoft Outlook around 9am on Thursday with reports of the issues rising as more and more people logged on to work, reported Techradar . Shortly after the problem emerged, Microsoft fired off a post on X saying that they were aware of the issue.

"We're investigating an issue in which users in Europe may be experiencing crashing, not receiving emails or observing high memory usage when using the Outlook client," they wrote in the post. "For more information, please see MO907654 within the admin center."

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According to the site, the outage was initially thought of only affecting users in Europe, however, a map showed that the outage had spread to the U.S. with New York, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Chicago being the most affected.

The technology giant later tweeted that they were still looking into the problem. "We're analyzing data from customers experiencing crashes and high memory usage when using the New Outlook desktop app," they said. "We're reviewing service telemetry and reproducing the issue internally to develop a mitigation plan. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center."

It was later reported by Techradar that complaints of an outage had hist the 2,000 marker. Finally, Microsoft seemed to have found the problem that caused the outage. "We've identified a potential memory management issue which may be responsible for causing impact," they stated in a third post. "We're obtaining memory dumps and logs from Outlook client telemetry data for analysis to determine our next steps. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center."

In a fourth post, Microsoft said that they were "focused on isolating the source of a potential memory management issue which may be responsible for causing impact." They added: "We're working with organizations and are replicating the issue internally to develop a mitigation. For more information, see MO907654 within the admin center." Around 12:55 EST it was announced that service to Microsoft 365 had been restored.

The outrage of Microsoft 365 comes months after the tech giant suffered a national outage in July that brought several industries to a grinding halt. the ensuing chaos left thousands of Americans to be locked out of their bank accounts causing hospital cancelations and even grounding flights .

During the widespread panic and confusion, all United, Delta and American Airlines flights were grounded. Microsoft has issued a statement on the issue. “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said on X that: “We still expect that users will continue to see gradual relief as we continue to mitigate the issue.”

Crowdstrike, a software company linked to Mircosoft, also issued a statement at the time. Kurtz said on X: "CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack."

"We further recommend organizations ensure they’re communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels," the statement continued. "Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

Cybersecurity experts at Crowdstrike later attribute the chaos to a glitch in “content deployment." According to a professor at Cornell University, the outage exposed the weakness of the IT structure. "This is a function of the very homogenous technology that goes into the backbone of all of our IT infrastructure," explained Gregory Falco, an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University."What really causes this mess is that we rely on very few companies, and everybody uses the same folks, so everyone goes down at the same time."