Widespread Microsoft Outage Disrupts Outlook and Teams Services, Affecting Businesses and Government Operations Worldwide
A major global outage affecting Microsoft’s services, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams and several Microsoft 365 applications, has disrupted businesses, government agencies and millions of users across multiple countries. The disruption, which began on November 12, 2026, continued into November 13, leaving organisations struggling to maintain routine communication and essential digital operations.
The outage primarily affected Microsoft’s Exchange Online infrastructure, which supports cloud-based email, calendars and several workplace communication services. Users reported difficulties accessing Outlook mailboxes, sending and receiving emails, managing schedules and connecting to certain Microsoft 365 applications. Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online and the Copilot AI assistant were also among the services reporting disruptions.
The scale of the incident became increasingly evident as outage-monitoring platform Downdetector recorded approximately 130,000 reports of Outlook-related problems at the peak of the disruption. Reports came from users across different regions, highlighting the widespread impact of Microsoft’s cloud-based infrastructure failure.
Microsoft engineers faced difficulties restoring normal operations despite several recovery attempts. The company initially tried restarting affected servers, redirecting traffic away from problematic infrastructure and implementing technical changes. However, some earlier recovery measures failed to deliver sustained improvements, forcing engineers to explore additional solutions.
In its subsequent updates on November 13, Microsoft reported positive signs of recovery after applying a patch intended to improve server stability. The company said service availability and email delivery performance were gradually improving across affected infrastructure in different regions. However, it warned that some customers could continue experiencing intermittent disruptions and delayed email deliveries while recovery operations remained underway.
The outage also affected government institutions and businesses worldwide. In the United Kingdom, disruptions reportedly affected government departments, healthcare-related administrative services and police reporting systems. Government operations in Singapore, Japan and the Philippines also experienced difficulties because of their reliance on Microsoft’s digital services.
In Australia, government agencies and businesses reported communication problems, while authorities coordinated with Microsoft to assess the impact and maintain essential operations. Some organisations were forced to rely on alternative communication methods and existing backup arrangements to continue their work.
India also experienced disruptions, particularly in corporate communication and customer-support operations. Airlines, including IndiGo and Air India, reported problems affecting their email support services. IndiGo said that alternative customer-support channels remained available, while Air India temporarily redirected its email services to maintain communication with customers. Both airlines indicated that their flight operations remained unaffected.
The disruption also highlighted the growing dependence of businesses, governments and financial institutions on a relatively small number of major cloud-service providers. With Microsoft 365 integrated into everyday administrative, commercial and communication activities, even a technical failure affecting one major infrastructure component can create widespread operational difficulties.
Microsoft stated that it had no indication that the incident was caused by malicious activity or a cyberattack. The company continued working to restore affected services and improve infrastructure stability, while promising further information about the incident after its investigation.
As of November 13, 2026, recovery efforts were showing encouraging progress, but complete restoration had not yet been confirmed. Microsoft continued monitoring the affected infrastructure, addressing outstanding service disruptions and working to clear delayed email deliveries as users and organisations awaited a full return to normal operations.
