Tens of thousands of users reported issues with Microsoft products in Canada and the U.S. Thursday afternoon, according to outage tracker Downdetector.
There were nearly 150,000 reports of problems using Microsoft Outlook in both Canada and the U.S. at 1:30 p.m. ET, the website reported.
As of 9:30 p.m., there were still more than 35,000 combined reports of issues between the two countries. At that time, Canada saw a spike in outages with nearly 6,700, the most reported on Downdetector since before 5 p.m.
Microsoft’s service incidents social media account said it was investigating.
“We’ve determined a portion of infrastructure is experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which is likely contributing to the connectivity errors,” it wrote online.
Issues were also reported with Copilot and Microsoft 365, the subscription suite that includes various apps like Word, Excel, Teams, OneDrive and others.
Hospitals, VIA Rail among those impacted
A Toronto hospital network has declared a “Code Grey,” which is called when there is a loss or failure of infrastructure.
In a statement, Unity Health Toronto, which includes St. Michael’s Hospital, said its staff is experiencing difficulties sending and receiving emails amid the Microsoft outage.
It advised anyone who needs to reach a clinic or department about an upcoming appointment to call the main hospital line if urgent.
“Please be advised that patient and resident care is not affected by the outage. Our hospitals remain safe and open to provide care,” Unity Health said.
Meanwhile, Via Rail said passengers may not be able to receive email communications about their trip due to the outage.
“We encourage passengers to use the VIA Rail train tracker or to subscribe to SMS notifications through the Via Rail Train Status & Schedules Page to get the most updated information about their train,” it said.
Several Toronto-area post-secondary institutions also say their email services are impacted, including the University of Toronto, Seneca Polytechnic, and George Brown Polytechnic. It doesn’t appear classes are affected by the outage.
Other outages
Downdetector.com also noted more than 500 reported issues in both Canada and the U.S. with Amazon Web Services and more than 1,000 with Gmail, as of 5:15 p.m.
‘Take your time’
Some Microsoft users took to social media to lament the outage, while others encouraged the company not to fix the issue too quickly.
“Take your time. The peace and quiet is nice LOL,” wrote one user.
“Please leave Outlook down till Friday 5 pm :),” wrote another.
With files from CTV News Toronto’s Bryann Aguilar
