REDLANDS, CA — The City of Redlands' email system was temporarily unavailable Thursday because of a widespread Microsoft outage affecting Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services, city officials announced.
The disruption left municipal employees and residents unable to reliably communicate through city email accounts, with messages sent to city staff potentially delayed or not received.
The outage was part of a broader disruption affecting businesses and organizations nationwide, including California city halls, where employees reported problems accessing email and other essential workplace services.
Redlands officials advised residents who need to contact municipal departments to call them directly until email service is restored. Department phone numbers are available at the city's website, cityofredlands.org.
Residents were also reminded to call 911 for emergencies.
City officials said they will provide an update once email services are restored and thanked residents for their patience.
The municipal disruptions coincided with widespread failures involving Microsoft Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services. According to Reuters, Downdetector recorded more than 130,000 reports of Outlook problems at approximately 10:27 a.m. Pacific time Thursday, alongside more than 46,000 Microsoft 365 reports and roughly 3,000 involving Teams.
Those figures represent user-submitted reports, not confirmed numbers of affected customers. The Associated Press reported that users encountered problems accessing inboxes, sending and receiving emails and connecting to other Microsoft applications.
Microsoft acknowledged widespread connectivity problems involving Exchange Online, the cloud-based infrastructure supporting Outlook email services.
The company said servers had unexpectedly become unavailable after failing automated health checks, placing additional strain on remaining infrastructure. Engineers were restarting affected servers, redistributing traffic and testing changes intended to restore service.
The underlying cause remained under investigation, with no definitive timetable announced for full restoration.
Residents and businesses can monitor Microsoft's service status page for updates.
Patch Local Editor Scott Snowden contributed to this report.
Sign up for free local newsletters and alerts for the
Redlands Patch
Patch.com is the nationwide leader in hyperlocal news.
Visit Patch.com to find your town today.