Microsoft said on Thursday evening that it was still working through problems with users’ Exchange Online mailboxes and a separate issue affecting Microsoft Teams. At around 4pm. ET, the company said its latest attempt to fix the fault was showing signs of success, though it stopped short of declaring services fully restored.

The trouble first surfaced earlier that day. Shortly before 1pm, Microsoft posted that it was investigating reports of users having difficulty accessing online mailboxes. It followed that with a message about people being unable to use Microsoft Teams functionality in North America, before broadening the description to users across the Americas unable to reach Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods.

Posting on X, the company said it was investigating reports of users experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas, after first flagging problems with Microsoft Teams in North America. In a later message, Microsoft said it was investigating an issue affecting users attempting to access Exchange Online or functionality within the Microsoft Teams calendar.

Microsoft’s incident notification warned that users might be unable to connect to or access multiple Microsoft 365 services. Those listed went beyond email and chat to include SharePoint Online, Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Defender XDR. Reports of trouble reaching Microsoft email and Teams spanned multiple regions.

Exchange Online is the hosted service that lets businesses reach email, calendar and contacts across PC, phone and web browser, which is why mailbox outages tend to be felt quickly across an organisation. Teams sits alongside it as the messaging and calls hub.

Earlier in the episode, Microsoft said it had successfully restored the Teams problems in North America, although some users continued to report connectivity issues after that update. Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams and other apps were disrupted for thousands of users for more than nine hours across Thursday and Friday, with the company scrambling for a solution after initial fixes failed to bring services back online.