Some users may be unable to access or protect content using Azure Rights Management (ARM) across Microsoft 365 services

A post-incident report has been published.

A post-incident report has been published.

Title: Some users may be unable to access or protect content using Azure Rights Management (ARM) across Microsoft 365 services User impact: Users may be unable to access or protect content using ARM across Microsoft 365 services. More info: Impact may have prevented users from encrypting or decrypting protected content, including files and email messages, across Microsoft 365 services that rely on ARM. Final status: Our mitigation efforts to stabilize the affected service components and restore request processing have been successful, and we’ve observed sustained recovery across the affected services. Scope of impact: Some users attempting to encrypt or decrypt content using Microsoft 365 services that rely on ARM may have been impacted. Start time: Monday, October 19, 2026, at 6:30 AM UTC End time: Monday, October 19, 2026, at 9:19 AM UTC Root cause: A significant increase in requests from several Microsoft 365 services exceeded the available processing capacity of the Azure Rights Management (ARM) front-end service. We identified that one contributing service had recently adopted a new software component that did not respond correctly to instructions to slow retry attempts, causing requests to be repeated more frequently than intended. The resulting resource pressure made some service components unhealthy and unable to process traffic reliably. Next steps: - For a more comprehensive list of next steps and actions, please refer to the Post Incident Report document.

Title: Some users may be unable to access or protect content using Azure Rights Management (ARM) across Microsoft 365 services User impact: Users may be unable to access or protect content using ARM across Microsoft 365 services. More info: Impact may prevent users from encrypting or decrypting protected content, including files and email messages, across Microsoft 365 services that rely on ARM. Current status: We’ve identified that some service components responsible for processing Azure Rights Management requests are in an unhealthy state. We’re attempting to restart the affected components to mitigate impact. We’re seeing early signs of service recovery and are investigating the root cause while evaluating whether additional mitigation actions are required. Scope of impact: Some users attempting to encrypt or decrypt content using Microsoft 365 services that rely on ARM may be impacted. Next update by: Monday, October 19, 2026, at 11:00 AM UTC