Is Microsoft still down? What we know as global Microsoft outage impacts Scottish schools, councils and health boards
Here are all of the services in Scotland being impacted by the global Microsoft outage.
Microsoft has been hit by a major global outage, with Scottish schools, councils and health boards among organisations affected.
Problems were first reported around 6pm last night (Thursday, November 12), with ongoing issues impacting millions of users across more than 70 countries, including Scotland.
Businesses and government agencies are among those feeling the affects of the Microsoft outage, which are related to Microsoft 365 software including Teams and Outlook. Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant, is also experiencing disruption.
Microsoft say the outage is not the result of a cyber-security incident, but their efforts to get services back up and running have been largely unsuccessful.
Which services are affected by the Microsoft outage today?
Microsoft 365 services including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Microsoft's artificial intelligence software Copilot, are all being affected by the global outage, as is the Xbox Network.
Governments, courts, charities, banks, and businesses which rely on Microsoft’s suite of software are all experiencing disruption. The UK Government said it had “robust contingency plans” in place to minimise disruption caused to services.
Microsoft has not confirmed how many people are impacted, but we know the company has around 430 million users worldwide.
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How is the Microsoft outage impacting Scotland?
In Scotland, organisations such as health boards and councils use various Microsoft services, with the outage impacting systems including pharmacies and schools. In addition, there are reports on Down Detector of emergency service systems being impacted including phone numbers.
Elsewhere, NHS Grampian have shared on social media that telephone lines are working as normal but that GPs are unable to log in to some systems.
Local authorities including West Lothian Council, Midlothian Council and the City of Edinburgh Council are also reporting issues with emails, and that anyone looking to get in touch should do so by telephone - with the message extending to schools.
Scottish Water, LNER, CalMac and CityLink are also among businesses affected by the Microsoft outage, as is mental health charity Samaritans.
What have Microsoft said about the outage?
Microsoft executive vice-president Charles Lamanna said the outages did not appear to be the result of a cyber attack, though there have been difficulties getting services back up and running.
In a statement, the company said: “We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution.
“Once mitigated, we will provide full details of the root cause.”
In a recent update, Microsoft said: “We are seeing early signs of stabilisation, but service capacity has not yet returned to normal levels and health remains variable as traffic is carefully reintroduced.
“Our primary mitigation path continues to focus on service stability and controlled recovery.”
It added: “As part of this effort, we are extending the email timeout window to 48 hours to help protect delayed messages while service recovery continues.”
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