Microsoft Store Down? App Downloads Disrupted as Global Microsoft Outage Drags Into Second Day for Millions

REDMOND, Wash. — Users around the world reported problems with the Microsoft Store on Friday, as a global Microsoft outage that also knocked out Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services went into a second day.

The Microsoft Store is the official marketplace for downloading and updating apps and games on Windows PCs. It was among the services hit when the disruption began Thursday afternoon, according to user reports and testing by technology news site Windows Latest. Outage trackers logged thousands of Store problem reports on Thursday and again on Friday.

Microsoft has said there is no evidence of a cyberattack. It has not identified a root cause or given a timeline for full recovery.

Store caught in a wider meltdown

The Store problems came amid one of Microsoft's largest service disruptions in years. Outlook email, Teams, Copilot, OneDrive and Azure were also listed among the affected services, according to Windows Latest.

Outage reports for the Store climbed again Thursday evening. Problem reports surged starting around 7:14 p.m. ET Thursday, as users in Asia began their workday, according to Downdetector data cited by the DesignTAXI community. Frustrated users posted complaints on social media platforms including X.

Users of the Windows app store depend on it to install new software, update existing programs and download games bought through Microsoft's platform. When the Store's online services fail, downloads, updates and purchases may stall or fail to load.

Microsoft has not published a separate incident report for the Store or described any Store-specific error messages.

'Not driven by an increase in traffic'

Microsoft has blamed the broader outage on servers that unexpectedly went offline, which put heavy strain on the rest of its systems.

"We determined the elevated load isn't driven by an increase in traffic, but by a number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable; straining the remaining infrastructure," Microsoft said in a statement.

The company said it paused deployments, freed up memory and rerouted traffic to ease the pressure.

Charles Lamanna, Microsoft's executive vice president for Copilot, Agents and Platform, said in a post on X: "There is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity."

Microsoft said it would keep treating the incident "with urgency and priority until full resolution."

Recovery uneven across regions

By Friday morning, Microsoft reported signs of progress. The company said it was "seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure."

In a later update, Microsoft reported "broader improvements in North America, sustained improvements across much of Europe, and encouraging recovery signals in Asia Pacific."

Even so, problems persisted for many users. On Microsoft's own support forum, one user wrote Thursday evening that services had been down since 2:30 p.m. EST.

Global disruption

The outage began shortly before 1 p.m. ET Thursday and spread quickly. Downdetector said reports reached 74 countries and territories within about an hour.

Governments, banks, courts, schools and airlines reported disruptions. Government ministries in Japan went back to paper, Australia's spy agency and federal police were affected, and staff at major banks in Hong Kong were locked out of email.

Microsoft's consumer services were also hit. The company said the problems affected Outlook.com, OneDrive, OneNote, To Do, Teams and Microsoft 365 for the web.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft had told him the incident resembled the 2024 CrowdStrike outage, describing it as "an update that has gone awry."

Can users get a refund?

The length of the outage has raised questions about compensation for business customers.

Microsoft's service level agreements for business products such as Exchange Online offer partial credits when uptime falls below set levels, according to Windows Latest's review of Microsoft's April 2026 volume licensing terms. Customers may get a 25% credit if uptime falls below 99.9%, 50% below 99% and 100% below 95%.

Those percentages apply only to eligible service fees, not a company's whole bill. Uptime is calculated in user-minutes. "Credits are prorated based on the service affected and the duration of the outage," Microsoft says.

Credits are not automatic. Business customers who bought directly from Microsoft must open a support request in the Microsoft 365 admin center and cite the incident ID, MO1550821 for the broader incident. Customers who buy through a reseller should contact that provider.

Personal users of Outlook.com and consumer services, including the Microsoft Store, are most likely not eligible for such credits, according to Windows Latest.

What Microsoft Store users can do

Until Microsoft confirms full recovery, users having trouble with the Store can try a few basic steps:

• Wait and retry: Microsoft says services will come back gradually as capacity is restored, so failed downloads may succeed later.
• Restart the Store app or the PC: this lets it reconnect once its online services recover.
• Check sign-in: make sure you are signed in to your Microsoft account. Sign-in problems were reported during the outage.
• Avoid unofficial download sites: these can carry malware. Wait for the official Store to recover.
• Ignore unsolicited "support" calls or messages: banks have warned that scammers are posing as Microsoft technical support during the outage.

Users can follow updates through Microsoft's official service status pages and its Microsoft 365 Status account on X. IT administrators can find details in the Microsoft 365 admin center under incident MO1550821.

Another blow for Microsoft

The outage is the latest in a string of service problems for Microsoft this year. In January, Microsoft 365 was down across North America for almost 10 hours. In late August, thousands of Outlook users worldwide were locked out of their mailboxes.

Microsoft said it would publish a full post-incident report once the current problem is fixed. It has not said when the Store and its other services will be fully restored.