A global Microsoft outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot from Thursday, Nov. 12, with problems continuing into Friday. Users reported difficulty sending or receiving email, opening some files and accessing calendar information, while access to Teams varied.
Microsoft said the incident was not caused by a cyberattack. It attributed the disruption to elevated demand on its infrastructure after a number of servers became unexpectedly unavailable, adding pressure to those still operating. The company’s explanation and service impacts were reported by BBC.
Reports span countries and services
Downdetector recorded about 140,000 reports of Outlook problems from 74 countries on Thursday evening. That figure reflects user submissions to the monitoring site, not a confirmed count of everyone affected. Microsoft’s website says more than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, but the total number affected by this outage has not been confirmed.
Disruption was reported across workplaces and public services. In the UK, GP surgeries, pharmacies, police forces and schools experienced problems. Courts in Los Angeles and Texas warned that communications could be delayed, while Japan’s government said its shared IT platform was disrupted. In Toronto, a healthcare network reported email issues but said patient care was unaffected.
OpenAI said it was investigating problems with its connections to Microsoft services, which caused some tools to behave unexpectedly. The Associated Press also reported widespread problems affecting Microsoft email and other apps.
Microsoft said Friday that recovery was progressing in Europe and improving in North America, while warning that some users could continue to experience intermittent issues as it worked on remaining disruptions. Earlier, the company said its attempted fixes were not working as expected.
The outage affected users unevenly: some could still use Teams messaging and online meetings, while others faced broader access problems. Microsoft had not confirmed a total number of affected customers.
Reid Bentley