"We're investigating reports that some users are unable to open files in Office for the web or Microsoft Teams," the company's Microsoft 365 Status tweeted earlier.
Microsoft 365 Status: what users are seeing
Microsoft has acknowledged an ongoing incident that prevents some customers from opening files stored or accessed through Microsoft Teams and Office for the web. According to the company, affected Office Apps include, but are not limited to, Excel and PowerPoint for the web. Impacted users who attempt to open documents may be shown this message verbatim: "Office Online services aren't available right now. We're working to restore all services as soon as possible."
Admin center advisory MO1329446: scope and diagnostics
The company detailed the disruption further in an admin center advisory labeled MO1329446, confirming that multiple Office Apps are affected and explicitly calling out Microsoft Excel for the web. Microsoft said it is investigating service telemetry in an effort to isolate the root cause, but it has not specified which regions are affected nor provided a timeline for full remediation.
Initial analysis: a potential cross-service issue
In a subsequent update, Microsoft reported that "initial analysis indicates a potential cross-service issue impacting Office for the web experiences." The vendor has classified the outage as an incident — the term the company uses for critical service problems that produce noticeable impact for users — and is continuing an active investigation.
Related and recent platform disruptions: MFA, cache failover, and April rollbacks
Microsoft's notice arrives on the heels of separate, recent platform problems. Earlier the same day the company addressed an incident that blocked customers from setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA) on some accounts or from accessing the MySignIn service. Microsoft attributed that platform access problem to "a recent cache configuration change that required a failover," which triggered high CPU and memory utilization as traffic from European Union customers began to peak.
Microsoft also resolved multiple incidents in April. Those included a backend change that blocked some Microsoft Teams Free users from chatting and calling others, and a bug introduced by a Microsoft Edge browser update that prevented Windows users from joining Teams meetings. In April the company reverted a service update that had blocked some Teams users from launching the desktop client, leaving them stuck on a loading screen with the error: "We're having trouble loading your message. Try refreshing."
What this means for technologists, affected enterprises, and end users
- Technologists and security teams: Microsoft reports it is using service telemetry to isolate root causes and has flagged the situation as an incident; teams responsible for monitoring service health should follow the Microsoft 365 Status channel and admin center advisory MO1329446 for updates.
- Affected enterprises and procurement leaders: Organizations that rely on Office for the web and Teams should expect interruptions to file access and plan for contingency handling of collaboration and document workflows while Microsoft investigates.
- End users and IT administrators: Users attempting to open documents may see the exact error message cited by Microsoft; administrators should note that a separate, earlier incident temporarily blocked MFA setup and MySignIn access for some accounts.
Microsoft has not supplied a regional breakdown or a final remediation timetable. The company continues to investigate and to analyze service telemetry; it has described the present situation as a potential cross-service issue and has treated it as an incident. "This is a developing story..."
Original reporting: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-investigates-office-apps-teams-file-access-issues/
