Where meetings go to die: Microsoft Teams outage lets customers skip that collaboration call they've been dreading

Another month, another Teams TITSUP*

Updated When the sun is out, thoughts can turn to taking an impromptu day's vacation. Microsoft Teams appears to be no exception to this rule as users noted problems with the collaboration platform this morning.

Connecitivity woes seemed to start at around 10:00 UTC as users across the UK and mainland Europe reported errors with the desktop and web applications on PC and Mac. Not all customers were affected (and some reported success on mobile platforms) however a bunch were were greeted with a variety of errors instead of the chat of meetings they expected.

@MicrosoftTeams Can't login, my account and customers accounts, multiple tenants. Help! pic.twitter.com/7VRpYEDhCu

— Dave Hodges (@Daveeeh) April 27, 2021

Sometimes a 401 or "operational failed" error can be a blessed relief compared to the fifth video conference before lunch. If you're affected, we'd suggest a nice cup of tea, a biscuit and some daytime television while Teams totters.

The Microsoft 365 initially weighed in by confirming it was "investigating an issue with Microsoft Team impacting Europe and Asia," urging users to follow the TM252802 in the Admin Center.

But at 10:53am UTC, Microsoft admitted things had deteriorated globally.

We’ve confirmed that this issue affects users globally. We’re reviewing monitoring telemetry and recent changes to isolate the source of the issue. More information can be found under TM252802 in the Admin Center.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) April 27, 2021

In the Admin Center, Microsoft told IT pros glumly watching the tickets roll in (by email) that: "We're analyzing system telemetry to isolate the source for the issue. In parallel, we're reviewing recent changes made to the service as a potential root cause."

Microsoft? Roll out a catastrophically badly tested update? Surely not.

The ongoing instability of Teams, particularly after a year in which the company has had plenty of time to deal with the issues arising from a tsunami of customers coming to depend on the platform, is a tad embarrassing. The whole shebang went, er, bang in February.

Things have also not gone well for the first wave of US customer sign-ins as some ran headlong into the wall of Microsoft's inability to keep Teams upright despite those initial assurances that things were only tottering over Europe and Asia.

The Register contacted Microsoft for comment, but the Windows behemoth has yet to respond. Probably too busy sticking duct tape on whatever has broken this time. ®

Updated at 14:27 BST on 27 April to add:

A Microsoft spokesperson has sent us a statement: "We have resolved an issue that affected access to Microsoft Teams for some customers and services are now running normally."

* Teams Is Tottering Say Unimpressed Punters