Microsoft 365 Outage Knocks Down Teams, Exchange Online

An Azure Active Directory outage is preventing users from logging into Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, Forms, Xbox Live, and Yammer.

Starting at approximately 3:34 PM EST, users began reporting being unable to login to their Microsoft 365 accounts, Microsoft Teams, or access other Microsoft apps.

The outage is also affecting Microsoft sites, such as the Tech Community web site, as users are not able to log into the site.

“As a result of the issues currently facing Azure AAD, we are currently experiencing problems on the Microsoft Tech Community with login and authentication. This will result in users being unable to login and users already logged in getting unexpected errors as sessions timeout,” posted a Microsoft Tech Community manager.

Microsoft has acknowledged the outage in the Microsoft 365 incident report MO244568, which states the outage initially impacted Microsoft Teams but is now affecting other services.

“Initial reports indicate that primary impact is to Microsoft Teams; however, other services including Exchange Online and Yammer are also impacted.”

“We’re investigating a potential issue and checking for impact to your organization. We’ll provide an update within 30 minutes,” the outage report states.

Microsoft has confirmed that the widespread outages affecting Microsoft’s online services are the result of an Azure Active Directory (AAD) configuration issue. This issue is preventing users from authenticating to Microsoft 365, Exchange, Online, Microsoft Teams, or any other service relying on AAD.

“Starting at approximately 19:15 UTC on 15 Mar 2021, a subset of customers may experience issues authenticating into Microsoft services, including Microsoft Teams, Office and/or Dynamics, Xbox Live, and the Azure Portal,” reads the Azure status page.

Microsoft is sharing updates on their Microsoft 365 Status Twitter account, with the list of status updates shared below:

3/15/21 3:40 PM EST: “We’re investigating an issue for access to multiple M365 services. Please visit the admin center post M0244568 for more information. We’ll provide additional information here as it becomes available.”

3/15/21 4:04 PM EST: “We’ve confirmed that this issue could be affecting users worldwide. Additional information can be found at http://status.office.com, or if available, under MO244568 in the admin center.”

3/15/21 4:11 PM EST: “We’ve identified an issue with a recent change to an authentication system. We’re rolling back the update to mitigate impact, which we expect will take approximately 15 minutes. Additional information can be found at http://status.office.com or under MO244568 if available.”

3/15/21 4:44 PM EST: “The process to roll back the change is taking longer than expected. We’ll provide an ETA as soon as one becomes available. Additional information can be found at http://status.office.com or under MO244568 if available.”

3/15/21 5:01 PM EST: “We’ve identified the underlying cause of the problem and are taking steps to mitigate impact. We’ll provide an updated ETA on resolution as soon as one is available. Additional information can be found at https://status.office.com or under MO244568 if available.”

3/15/21 5:17 PM EST: “We are currently rolling out mitigation worldwide. Customers should begin seeing recovery at this time, and we anticipate full remediation within 60 minutes. Additional information can be found at http://status.office.com or under MO244568 if available.”

Update 3/15/21 4:48 PM: The outage is confirmed to be caused by an Azure Active Directory issue. Article updated with this information.