Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook, Teams and 365 services worldwide
Initially, Microsoft attributed the connectivity issues to the Americas, but the disruption subsequently emerged as a global incident
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Published: Nov 13, 2026 11:26 AM | 2 min read
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- A significant Microsoft outage disrupted access to Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 services, affecting users globally, starting around noon on the US East Coast.
- The outage impacted services linked to Exchange Online and Microsoft's email infrastructure, with millions of users potentially affected and Downdetector reporting a peak of 130,000 outage reports for Outlook.
- Microsoft provided updates on its efforts to restore service, noting initial positive results from infrastructure restarts, but later updates indicated ongoing challenges and the need for alternative measures.
- The incident underscored the reliance of businesses and institutions on cloud-based platforms, as users experienced intermittent access to essential services throughout the disruption.
A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted access to Outlook, Teams and several other Microsoft 365 services, affecting businesses, schools and users across multiple countries. The disruption, which began around noon on the US East Coast, continued for several hours, with Microsoft saying it is working on restoring server availability.
The outage affected services connected to Exchange Online and Microsoft's email infrastructure, including Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, Microsoft 365 and Copilot AI. By 3:30 a.m. GMT on Friday, the disruption remained widespread, with millions of users potentially affected.
Microsoft issued multiple updates through its Microsoft 365 Status account on X and its service health status page, outlining efforts to restore server availability. In an update at 1:59 a.m. GMT, the company said it was seeing positive results from attempts to restart affected infrastructure and recover servers in isolation.
However, a subsequent update at 3:13 a.m. GMT indicated that the changes were not delivering the expected results. Microsoft said it was exploring alternative measures to increase capacity amid sustained traffic management imbalances.
Initially, Microsoft attributed the connectivity issues to the Americas, but the disruption subsequently emerged as a global incident. Downdetector recorded a peak of around 130,000 reports related to Outlook outages, although the actual scale of the disruption was likely wider, as not all affected users report service issues.
Microsoft's restoration efforts also faced setbacks, with some servers becoming unresponsive again after being brought back online and receiving traffic. In an update at 10:09 p.m. GMT, the company acknowledged that its actions had not delivered the anticipated relief.
The prolonged outage highlighted the operational dependence of businesses and institutions on cloud-based productivity and communication platforms, as users continued to face intermittent access to essential workplace services.
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