More workers than usual had reason to curse their computer screens after a Microsoft outage blocked access to widely used productivity software across multiple countries.
Users reported problems accessing Microsoft 365 services including Outlook, Teams, Microsoft Store, Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview and faced email delivery delays and server errors.
The outage, which the tech giant attributed to a third-party networking issue, impacted services in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Mexico, India, Japan and Brazil, according to MSN.
Microsoft later took to social media to declare the issued had been solved, but many users were still reporting issues.
"Access issues for Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Outlook, have been resolved," Microsoft tweeted on X.
"We've determined that the Microsoft service environment remained healthy, and that the incident was related to a third-party network issue."
Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that connects users with Microsoft applications including Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, AI tools and cloud storage.
The service has nearly 345 million subscribers and an estimated active user base of 312 million.
Microsoft 365 has a roughly 30 per cent market share of the global business productivity software market, second to Google Workspace, with its estimated 44 per cent share.
Despite claims the outage had been solved, users on X reported ongoing troubles receiving emails, and a Microsoft Australia spokesman said local users may continue to face sporadic dysfunction.
"We are working to address a service functionality issue," the spokesman said in a statement.
"A subset of customers may be intermittently impacted."
Users can check updates via the Microsoft 365 Status page on X.
