Hours after a global outage on Friday, Microsoft 365 services were "recovered" after "mitigation actions", the tech giant claimed. Earlier, a service outage had prevented Microsoft 365 users from accessing several apps and services worldwide. According to the company's Service Health Status page, "a configuration change" in a part of their Azure backend workloads is causing "interruption between storage and compute resources", leaving several Microsoft 365 apps unusable. The outage also affected various services across the world including supermarkets, payment platforms, banking operations, stock market and flights. The status page suggests that the cloud service outage started at 3:26 AM today and is currently experiencing 'service degradation'. Microsoft seems to have restored some services like Microsoft Defender, Intune, OneNote, and SharePoint Online, but tools like PowerBI, Fabric, Teams, Purview, and Viva Engage are still down. While Teams users are unable to access group chats, presence and user registration, PowerBI service is currently available in only read-only mode. Microsoft was quick to acknowledge the issue and said they "remain committed in treating this event with the highest priority and urgency while we continue to address the lingering impact for the remaining Microsoft 365 apps that are in a degraded state." In the meantime, the Redmond-based tech giant also said that they will be "rerouting the impacted traffic to alternate system to alleviate impact". While some services are still down, Microsoft said they are now seeing a positive trend in service availability. Flight operations affected worldwide The cloud service also went in the Central U.S. region, causing several airlines like Frontier Airlines to cancel 147 and delay 212 flights. Sun Country and Allegiant also said that they had to delay 45 per cent and 27 per cent of their total flights. In India, Spicejet, IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and Akasa Air are reportedly facing technical difficulties affecting booking, check-in, and flight updates. As a temporary measure, affected Indian airlines are handing out hand-written boarding passes for flights. #ImportantUpdate: We are currently experiencing technical challenges with our service provider, affecting online services including booking, check-in, and manage booking functionalities. As a result, we have activated manual check-in and boarding processes across airports. We… — SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) July 19, 2024 #TravelUpdate: Due to infrastructure issues with our service provider, some of our online services, including booking, check-in and manage booking services will be temporarily unavailable. Currently we are following manual check-in and boarding processes at the airports and hence… — Akasa Air (@AkasaAir) July 19, 2024 #6ETravelAdvisory : As systems are impacted globally due to ongoing issues with Microsoft Azure, we kindly request you to refrain from making multiple booking attempts during this time. We are working closely with Microsoft to resolve the issue and appreciate your patience. — IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) July 19, 2024 Customer Advisory Our digital systems have been impacted temporarily due to the current Microsoft outage resulting in delays. We regret the inconvenience caused and request our guests to plan their travel accordingly.#AirIndia — Air India (@airindia) July 19, 2024 We're investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services. More info posted in the admin center under MO821132 and on — Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 18, 2024 Apart from Delhi and Mumbai airports, the Microsoft outage is also reportedly affecting flight operations at Berlin airport, all Spanish airports, Japan's Narita airport and Singapore's Changi airport. In a post on X, Melbourne Airport said that they are also experiencing a "global technology issue" which is currently impacting check-in procedures for some airlines. Melbourne Airport is experiencing a global technology issue which is impacting check-in procedures for some airlines. Passengers flying with these airlines this afternoon are advised to allow a little extra time to check-in. Please check with your airline for flight updates. pic.twitter.com/pFjOjReMKX — Melbourne Airport (@Melair) July 19, 2024 In response to the widespread outage, the Indian aviation ministry is asking affected airline operators to inform passengers about delays and cancellation via SMS. MEITY is in touch with Microsoft and its associates regarding the global outage. The reason for this outage has been identified and updates have been released to resolve the issue. CERT is issuing a technical advisory. NIC network is not affected. — Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) July 19, 2024 The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashiwini Vaishnaw said the government has reached out to Microsoft who is currently working on resolve the issue. TV channels and media outlets affected as well As it turns out, the outage not only impacted flight operations but also brought down some TV channels like UK's Sky News, which went offline for around an hour before restoring services at 9 AM local time. However, a report by Deadline suggests that the media outlet had a "stripped back studio, lack of chyrons, and presenters apparently reading from printed papers rather than an autocue." The Associated Press also said that they are "experiencing an intermittent service disruption that may impact your view of available content." Here’s how Sky News Australia is reporting the technical problems preventing them broadcasting live. (Footage via - a clever site by @JamesCridland which gives access to YouTube streams of news channels globally) pic.twitter.com/k7xalsrvEx — Marc Blank-Settle @bbcmarc on Threads (@MarcSettle) July 19, 2024 BBC's CBBC kids channel also suffered an outage and replaced the bird song with the message "Sorry! Something's gone wrong." On Sky News Australia, a reporter was spotted dead screens in the background. Another report by The Sunday Morning Herald said that ABC News Channel wasn't showing any graphics or footage and that the anchors were reading the script from their computer since the teleprompter was down. Banks, supermarkets, pharmacies, trains and other services affected as well According to BBC, the UK National Pharmacy Association said the outage, they are having trouble accessing prescriptions from general physicians and delivering medicines. Football club Manchester United's website is also down. The club added that it will start giving and selling tickets after the issue is resolved. Reports also suggest that the London Stock Exchange is also affected by the outage. It looks like 911 emergency services in several states in the US have been hit as well. Many Windows PC hit by Blue Screen of Death, but it's not Microsoft's fault Millions of Windows users are reportedly experiencing the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), causing their system to crash with some saying that their system is stuck in an infinite restart loop. While many are blaming Microsoft, the issue is caused by a recent CrowdStrike 'Falcon Sensor' update. For those not in the loop, CrowdStrike, a popular cybersecurity software used by government agencies and large corporations in places like airports, banks, and commercial systems. In a statement, Crowdstrike said that their "engineers are actively working to resolve this issue and there is no need to open a support ticket." However, there is currently no automatic solution to the problem.
