The Morning of 6th May was a busy time for many admins. As many M365 subscribers in North America felt that something was not right with their service. Teams went unresponsive, and even Outlook felt sluggish. Moreover, unlike some common problems in Office 365, which can be resolved at the user level, this was a significant Microsoft 365 outage impacting thousands.
The day went by troubleshooting one service at a time. By the next morning, May 7th, searches like “was there a Microsoft outage yesterday?” became commonplace on social media sites and public forums. People sought to understand what went wrong when O365 was down. Don’t worry, we will cover your queries in clear and simple language right here in this write-up.
What Were the First Signs of Yesterday’s Microsoft 365 Outage?
The trouble began around 14:28 UTC on May 6th. People took to social media to tag Microsoft pages. The messages were talking about some unknown problems preventing access to core Microsoft 365 services.
While the majority of complaints were on Microsoft Teams, the event also impacted Outlook, OneDrive, and even SharePoint.
Problems like Teams Chat disappearing or OneDrive stopping unexpectedly were early indicators that something was off.
Soon, the official @MSFT365Status X account confirmed that yes, reports were right and an investigation is underway.
As per protocol, a unique incident ID, MO1068615, became available for easier tracking and release of official updates on the issue.
This acknowledgement cooled down the confusion that this was an internal fault rather than an external attack. However, there was still no news on what exactly caused this.
Reason Behind the May 6th M365 Service Disruption
Soon in a new Microsoft update pointed towards problems with Azure Front Door (AFD). This relatively lesser-known infrastructure plays a critical role in Microsoft’s content delivery network.
It was revealed that not the entire service but a section within AFD was “performing below acceptable thresholds”. Meaning it was not able to keep up with the demand.
The most likely reason could be a faulty routing configuration, although this is pure speculation, as no official confirmation/reason/cause beyond the “below par …” statement came from Microsoft’s side.
As AFD is a key player in the Microsoft Azure component, the main branch through which many other services work. Any disruption in this core area has cascading effects on the inheriting services like Teams. Akin to the cloud migration challenges that admins face if pre-requisites are not met.
Loss of productivity (especially due to infrastructural reasons) is not something to be taken lightly. Regardless, it is important to understand the limits of detailed public forensics even for an MNC like Microsoft.
Microsoft’s Response to Restore Normalcy after Parts of O365 went Down
Microsoft assigned a team of engineers to address the disruption. They did so like a highway accident where emergency services reroute traffic away from the problematic road and towards an alternate path.
All digital traffic coming into AFD made its way towards healthy alternatives. As Teams was the most severely impacted service, it was priority number 1.
Less than 2 hours from the first report, i.e., approximately @ 15:50 UTC on May 6th, this rerouting strategy was showing positive signs.
Many services started to behave normally, and admins could track the updates in real time by logging into the Microsoft 365 admin center.
After a period of work and careful monitoring, by around 02:28 UTC on May 7th, 2025, Microsoft announced that the impact from the previous day’s issues had been successfully mitigated.
Timely action meant that the service issue that occurred yesterday did not become a global outage, and was limited to North America.
As no further public updates specifically addressing MO1068615 appeared on the @MSFT365Status X feed meant that the immediate crisis was over.
Importance of Private Backups during Microsoft 365 Outage
This specific Microsoft 365 Outage only impacted the access to services and did not cause any data loss. However, if all your data is always on the cloud, then this incident made you realise the value of data resilience.
That is why having an independent, offline backup strategy is a must to safeguard your critical Microsoft 365 data (emails, OneDrive files, SharePoint sites). This has a secondary effect of making data accessible at any time, whether there is an outage or not. So admins can explore options like backing up Office 365 and specifically backing up OneDrive for Business to safeguard your data. Use the SysTools Microsoft 365 Backup tool.
Get your copy and secure your data now.
The Human Impact: Frustration and Broader Cloud Questions
Any service interruption, even if temporary, causes frustration. Moreover, they may lead to discussions about cloud service reliability, prompting admission to develop contingency plans.
Yet, despite these occasional hiccups, organizations continue to recognize the benefits of Microsoft 365 for business, balancing convenience with the need for preparedness.
Another surprising part about this May 6th event was the fourth notable outage in 2025 alone. It was different from previous issues in terms of cause and the geographical area affected, yet it had a similar effect on the users. Once again, highlighting how important it is for IT professionals to understand the admin roles and responsibilities in Office 365 for managing such incidents.
Key Takeaways
When a Microsoft 365 outage occurs first step is to visit the official channels like the Microsoft 365 admin center. Contact IT staff to confirm if the disruption is widespread or if you are the only one affected by it.
Users continue to trust the Microsoft 365 cloud; check out why users are moving to Office 365.