Microsoft said Tuesday it was investigating an outage affecting its office applications and services.
“We are currently investigating access issues and performance degradation across multiple Microsoft 365 services and features,” Microsoft said in its X post. “For more information, see MO842351 in the Admin Center.”
The outage appears to be affecting all regions around the world. One of the retailers affected by the outage was Starbucks. A spokesperson said customers were temporarily unable to access some features of the company’s mobile app, but that all features had been restored by Tuesday afternoon.
“Earlier today, a third-party systems outage caused some customers to temporarily lose access to the mobile order and pay feature on the Starbucks app,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Order ahead functionality has largely been restored and we are pleased that customers will continue to have access to this feature on the app.”
The cause of the outage is unclear, but the company said in an update just before 11 a.m. ET that some services were beginning to be restored.
Earlier this month, a routine software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused a global Microsoft outage that appears to have affected almost every major business sector, including airports, retail stores and banks.
American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines ordered groundings due to the CrowdStrike outage, which began on July 19. Airports and flights around the world were significantly delayed or canceled.
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Some people reported problems accessing their savings from affected banks. Customers in New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere reported being unable to log into their bank accounts, and the London Stock Exchange, Europe’s largest stock exchange, said it had disrupted some services.
Major retailers have also reported problems: McDonald’s Japan was forced to close some stores due to “cash register malfunctions,” some Starbucks stores were temporarily closed after the company’s mobile ordering system went down, and British grocery chain Waitrose had to put up handwritten signs in some stores informing shoppers that it only accepts cash.
The outage also hindered police operations, with the Alaska State Troopers having to issue an alert to residents informing them that 911 was temporarily out of service.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
