On Thursday morning, Microsoft reported a multi‑region outage that prevented users in Los Angeles and across the United States from accessing Outlook, Teams, SharePoint Online and the new Microsoft 365 Copilot tool. The disruption began shortly after 9 a.m., with Downdetector logging a spike that soon reached nearly 130,000 reports from affected users.
Microsoft said the problem stemmed from “elevated load driven by multiple servers being unexpectedly unavailable,” which caused a critical component responsible for processing server health checks to fail. As a result, servers did not pass automated health checks and were taken offline. The company posted updates on X, noting that it was restarting the affected servers around 2 p.m. and that a new health‑check method and automated recovery system were being deployed.
By early evening, Microsoft announced “partial recovery” after seeing “positive results” from traffic‑optimization actions, and at 11:45 p.m. it reported further improvements and a broader rollout of the recovery steps. The firm continues to work toward “persistent recovery,” directing administrators to monitor the Microsoft 365 admin center under incident EX1550543 for the latest status.
Local agencies felt the impact directly. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office, the LA County Sheriff’s Department and several other government offices reported email outages. Cities including Malibu, South El Monte and West Hollywood also experienced service interruptions. The Los Angeles Police Department clarified that emergency services were not affected, as critical dispatch systems remained operational.
Users in other major markets—Denver, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and numerous northeastern cities—reported similar problems, according to Downdetector. Earlier on Thursday, Microsoft had also flagged issues with Teams, but said service was being restored. As of the latest update, the company is still monitoring the situation and working to fully restore all Microsoft 365 services.
What’s next: Microsoft says it will continue to apply traffic‑optimization actions and monitor server health throughout Friday. Residents and businesses in Los Angeles are advised to check the Microsoft 365 admin center for real‑time updates and to plan for possible delays in email and collaboration tools until full service is confirmed.
Sources: nbclosangeles.com, news.google.com
