Resolved -
As of 1:30AM today, Microsoft reports this issue resolved.
Jan 23, 09:36 EST
Update -
Latest from Microsoft:
We’re continuing to see steady improvements in service availability for Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams and our broader recovery efforts remain actively underway. Engineers are further refining load balancing measures to accelerate recovery and are methodically addressing the remaining impacted services.
We do not yet consider this issue resolved and we remain committed to treating this issue with the highest urgency and priority. We understand how difficult it can be to operate without a confirmed estimated time to resolution. Please be assured that our teams are actively investigating and addressing the underlying causes of the impact, and we will share an estimated time for resolution as soon as one becomes available.
Jan 22, 22:41 EST
Update -
We are starting to see email flow to Office 365 recipients. Microsoft's next update at 10:30PM.
Jan 22, 22:17 EST
Update -
We are continuing to work on a fix for this issue.
Jan 22, 21:38 EST
Update -
9:24PM Update:
We’re seeing continued improvements in service availability and functionality as a result of our load-balancing efforts. We’re actively monitoring performance and making targeted adjustments to further improve stability and availability, while continuing recovery actions to ensure a reliable service experience.
Jan 22, 21:38 EST
Update -
6:23PM Eastern Microsoft update: During our ongoing efforts to rebalance traffic across the region, we introduced a targeted load balancing configuration change intended to expedite the recovery process, which incidentally introduced additional traffic imbalances associated with persistent impact for a portion of the affected infrastructure. We're remedying our load balancing configurations while, in parallel, reviewing the viability of expediting our ongoing incremental rebalancing and recovery efforts.
Jan 22, 18:45 EST
Identified -
update from Microsoft:
Users may be seeing degraded service functionality or be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services
Issue ID: MO1221364
Affected services: Exchange Online, Microsoft 365 suite, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Purview, SharePoint Online
Status: Service degradation
Issue type: Incident
Start time: Jan 22, 2026, 2:33 PM EST
More info
Some of the impacted service functions include, but may not be limited to:
- Sending and receiving email through Exchange Online, including notification email from Microsoft Viva Engage as well as subscription email for Microsoft Fabric users. Users may be receiving a "451 4.3.2 temporary server issue" error message when attempting to send or receive email through Outlook.
- Collecting message traces.
- Searching within SharePoint Online and/or Microsoft OneDrive.
- Accessing the service portals, including Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Defender XDR, and the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Creating chats, meetings, teams, channels or adding members in Microsoft Teams. Additionally, some users may be unable to create breakout rooms
- Receiving presence or location information in Microsoft Teams.
- Existing or new meeting options for Facilitator in Teams may not be honored.
- Applying and managing sensitivity labels, interactive operations on reports, and artifacts with sensitivity labels in Microsoft Fabric.
Scope of impact
Any users served through an affected section of service infrastructure in the North America region may be intermittently impacted.
Root cause
A portion of dependent service infrastructure in the North America region isn't processing traffic as expected.
Current status
Jan 22, 2026, 5:15 PM EST
We're carefully rebalancing traffic across all affected infrastructure in the region, while monitoring the corresponding health telemetry, to ensure the environment enters into a balanced state as our remediation efforts continue. We’re proceeding as quickly as possible and this incremental approach will also help us identify whether any additional actions may be required to ensure longstanding recovery.
Next update by:
Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 6:30 PM EST
Jan 22, 17:22 EST
Investigating -
We are experiencing issues accessing Microsoft 365 admin panels. Given the issues from yesterday, the problems may be more extensive. Too early to tell at the moment.
Jan 22, 15:32 EST
