A Microsoft Teams outage prevents access and limits features for some users

Microsoft Teams is experiencing an outage that has blocked access for some and led to what Microsoft calls “multiple issues” for many users.

The problem began around 11 a.m. EDT on Friday and quickly expanded in scope, according to DownDetector, which tracks outages. Users complained of inability to access the service, delays in sending and receiving messages, and problems with displaying graphics.

Microsoft said in messages on the social media network At approximately 1:30 PM EST, the company reported that the backup transfer process had been completed for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and that its tracking systems were showing improvements.

The company said reserve conversions to North and South America are continuing. DownDetector's outage reports dropped to roughly half their peak level as of 3pm EST but have since stabilized, indicating continued issues.

Teams is a messaging and video conferencing app with over 320 million monthly users on average as of September 2023.

US-based In a subsequent tweet, Microsoft acknowledged that its backup conversion “did not provide immediate relief to all end users in the North and South American regions,” but said its other attempts at mitigation were intended to “minimize customer impact as quickly as possible.”

Microsoft's public tweets on the subject referenced additional details available in a document posted in a Microsoft 365 management dashboard. When asked about that document, a Microsoft spokesperson at public relations firm WE Communications said the company's X posts are the only information it will share about This subject.

But Microsoft offered a somewhat bleaker view of its customers in that document, which was obtained by The Associated Press. The document details nearly a dozen different issues caused by the outage, including the inability to log into the service, lost or delayed messages, and the inability to access or view photos, video, audio recordings, and other media. In an update at 4:26 PM EST, the company said its efforts to work around the issues led to issues in back-end parts of its system that effectively “throttled” data traffic.

At 5:02 PM EDT, Microsoft also acknowledged that “many customers are still affected by this issue” but said the company is seeing “a reduction in errors and an increase in (service) availability.” The company also said it is working to address specific failures in Teams functionality in parallel with broader network efforts.

According to DownDetector, reported issues with Teams continued to decline but remained well above normal levels as of 6 PM EST.