Microsoft apologizes for nationwide outage, but what took so long?
Microsoft outage impacting millions
Emails began flowing back into Outlook inboxes Friday morning after a global Microsoft outage Thursday.
SEATTLE - Microsoft apologized to customers and partners after a technical network issue disrupted its services, confirming the outage was not linked to a cyberattack or artificial intelligence.
The Redmond-based technology giant said in a statement posted to its official social media account that services are now seeing "broad recovery and stability" as engineers finish bringing remaining users and regions back online.
Micro reports progress in restoring services after outage
The backstory:
The disruption originated Thursday from an error introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade on Thursday. That underlying flaw later surfaced following a recent network change, triggering the service interruption.
Microsoft stated that its engineering teams have resolved the root cause of the problem. To handle the high volume of demand without destabilizing systems, the company restored operations in phases, validating stability at each stage before moving forward.
What we know:
Millions of users experienced issues accessing several Microsoft 365 services.
Featured
Microsoft Outlook down: Widespread outage hits users nationwide
Microsoft users across the country reported connection issues in their Outlook mailboxes Thursday morning. Here's what we know.
What we don't know:
Microsoft has not yet specified the exact duration of the outage, the total number of affected users, or which specific geographic regions and cloud products experienced the heaviest impact.
What they're saying:
In its statement, Microsoft acknowledged the reliance businesses and individuals place on its digital infrastructure.
"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," the company said. "We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously."
Addressing the slower pace of the recovery, Microsoft noted that while a phased approach extended the timeline, "it helped ensure a stable restoration."
What's next:
Engineers continue to restore access for the remaining affected customers and regions. Microsoft said it will publish a comprehensive post-incident report detailing the technical breakdown once its internal review is complete.
The Source: Information in this story came from an official statement posted by Microsoft on X, and original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle.
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