Governments, courts, trains and hospitals hit by Microsoft outage in North America
Getty ImagesA global Microsoft outage that has hit millions of workers worldwide has slowed government, court, train and hospital services, in the US and Canada.
Municipal governments across the US including Austin, Texas, Jacksonville, Florida, and Baltimore, Maryland, said they relied on Microsoft for emails - though essential and emergency services were not affected.
In Canada, Unity Health Toronto declared a "Code Grey", saying patients could not reach doctors by email and urging them to call if needed.
Microsoft has said the outage was not caused by a cyber-security incident and that its services are gradually being restored.
"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," Microsoft stated on Friday.
The outage was related to a technical issue "following a recent network change", the company said. It added it has addressed the underlying issue and that its continuing to restore services for customers.
Microsoft 365 Services, including Teams, Outlook and artificial intelligence software Copilot, have been affected by "connectivity problems", the company said earlier.
The outage began on Thursday afternoon and continued into Friday.
Many customers have not been able to send or receive emails, view certain files or details on their calendar apps.
The outage affected the highest levels of government in the US, including the House of Representatives, where staff members told Politico their work had come to a halt.
"We all use Outlook. That's our life, everything is there, our calendar is there, our boss's calendar, so it has been a challenge," one anonymous House staff member said. "There goes a day of legislative work."
In New York, the city's Department of Investigations said it would have to suspend evictions on Friday because of systems affected by the outage, while the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office in Colorado said some people being held in detention may not be able to pay bond online.
"Until Outlook email is restored, anyone needing to post bond for immediate release must do so in person at the jail," the sheriff's office said on social media.
In an update on Friday afternoon, Unity Health Toronto said its email services have been restored.
It was not the only health system in the city to be impacted.
Halton Healthcare and the Hospital for Sick Children both said patients and doctors were having trouble reaching each other through email and phone.
"If you are trying to contact a SickKids staff member about an emergency, please seek care at your nearest Emergency Department," the country's largest children's hospital said in a statement.
Canada's passenger rail operator, Via Rail, was also experiencing issues, saying passengers may not be able to receive emails about their trip and urging them to subscribe to text notifications. Its train operations were not affected by the outage, the rail company said.