Several Microsoft programs appeared to suffer an outage including Microsoft 365, the subscription package that includes office software like Docs and Excel, and the meeting app Teams.
We saw initial spikes on the outage tracking site Down Detector starting around 9:00 a.m. PT with 365 quickly hitting over 1,000 reports. Teams meanwhile, leapt up to over 500 reports at the same time.
Commentors on the site said that they're locked out of their accounts, or that apps don't seem to be loading correctly.
Microsoft quickly acknowledged the issue on its status page and an official 365 account on X. Eventually, the company claimed that the issue was caused by third-party networking issue.
Reports seemed to go down about an hour after the initial spike, with people claiming they could login or open apps.
Keep Tom's Guide in your tabs as we track the outage.
Microsoft is down - here's what's happening
Microsoft 365 issues
We started seeing reports on Down Detector spike around 9 a.m. PT.
As mentioned, commentors are saying they can't access their account or that apps aren't loading.
Microsoft Teams also suffering
Microsoft Teams also appears to be having issues. On Down Detector I'm seeing half the reports of the 365 though, around 500, and those already appear to be going down.
Microsoft official status
Microsoft has a service health page related to 365, Azure, consumer products and Platform.
Right now, the page is listing "service degradation" for both the Business and consumer products.
"We're investigating a potential issue impacting Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Outlook."
It says the company is reviewing telemetry across its infrastructure to determine the source of the problem.
Microsoft X account
We've received reports and are investigating an issue affecting Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Outlook. Further information can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center under MO1220495 or at https://t.co/HhkWRk0eVa.January 21, 2026
The official Microsoft 365 X account has acknowledged the problem. It's the same message as the one on the status page.
"We've received reports and are investigating an issue affecting Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Outlook. Further information can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center under MO1220495 or at https://msft.it/6017QBN5X."
Small spikes across other Microsoft services
While Teams has already started to go down, I am seeing spikes on Down Detector across a variety of other Microsoft services.
Azure, the cloud platform, has a tiny spike of nearly 200 reports. A similar spike hit Xbox Live but I'm not sure its related. Outlook leapt up as well but already seems to be going down.
The Microsoft Store is also having issues.
It looks like the 365 spike is also going down.
Reports going down
Of the Microsoft properties suffering issues, 365 had the most but it appears to be slowly going down.
After a high of nearly 1500 reports, we're down closer to 1,000 as of this writing.
Update from Microsoft
Our investigation indicates a possible third-party networking issue may be affecting access to Microsoft 365 services, including Teams and Outlook for some users. Further information can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center under MO1220495 or at https://t.co/xl32dlMqeKJanuary 21, 2026
Microsoft released an update saying it found the cause.
"Our investigation so far indicates impact is associated with a possible third-party networking issue. We're recursively investigating the health of the Microsoft-managed service environment to identify whether any mitigation actions are required and ensure our services are healthy."
It may have resolved on its own since reports are down to around 750 on Down Detector right now.
