Hospitals, GP surgeries, schools and police forces across the UK were hit by a Microsoft outage that knocked out Outlook email and disrupted Teams from Thursday evening.
Microsoft says it has now “addressed the underlying issue” and is restoring services gradually. The Guardian reported that recovery began just before midday on Friday.
Who was affected in the UK
Healthcare systems were disrupted. A live blog on AOL listed the Met Police, London Fire Brigade, Parliament and the Supreme Court among those hit, along with NHS trusts, GPs, ambulance services and councils.
The Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust warned patients that services might be disrupted. It said “alternative communication arrangements” were in place so that the day’s business could continue.
Several police forces told the public not to report crimes online and to phone instead. NBC News reported that West Yorkshire Police said some online forms might not work and gave its 101 non-emergency number. Merseyside Police reminded people to dial 999 in an emergency.
Some schools told parents that attendance and absence reports had to be made by phone. National Rail warned that tickets sent by email might not be accessible.
Teams fared better than email. NBC reported that core functions such as calls, meetings and chat were largely not affected, though problems were patchy and varied between users.
What Microsoft said
A Microsoft spokesperson told the BBC the firm was “deeply sorry” for the disruption. The BBC’s live coverage said the firm also promised to treat its responsibilities extremely seriously.
The company said the cause was a technical issue, not a cyber-attack or a problem with AI agents. It has suggested faulty settings on servers that keep Microsoft 365 running may be to blame, according to the Guardian.
The length of the outage is reported differently. The Guardian put it at roughly 18 hours, while the BBC described more than 20 hours of disruption as systems came back.
Down Detector logged nearly 130,000 problem reports from 74 countries from about 6pm on Thursday. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneDrive and Copilot were affected as well as Outlook and Teams.
Outside the UK, US congressional offices, city governments and a Colorado sheriff’s office were affected. Airlines and pharmaceutical firms in Asia were also hit.
What affected users should do now
Microsoft says email queues are “approaching normal levels”, but its latest update warns that some people may still struggle to connect or have delayed messages. Expect late-arriving emails and check anything time-sensitive by another route.
- If you need the police, phone rather than use online forms. Use 101 for non-emergencies and 999 in an emergency.
- If your child’s school asked for absence reports by phone, keep doing that until it confirms otherwise.
- If you rely on a ticket emailed to you, such as a rail ticket, check you can open it before you travel.
- If you are waiting for an NHS appointment message, follow your trust’s or surgery’s instructions and phone if unsure.
Mark Gregory, an associate professor at RMIT University in Melbourne, told the Guardian the fault appeared to be in Microsoft’s network layer. He compared it with the configuration error that took down Optus in 2023.
He said a loss of part of the server pool pushes users on to what remains, which then overloads and fails in a cascade. Organisations that depend on Microsoft’s cloud should have a fallback plan, he said.
Microsoft has not yet said when services will be fully back to normal.
Sources: The Guardian, BBC News, NBC News, AOL (live blog)
This story was compiled by the MDW Newsdesk with AI-assisted tools, using the reporting credited above.
