Microsoft services outage disrupts Outlook and Teams worldwide Outlook and Teams hit by major Microsoft outage. · Verdict · Andrew Sozinov/Shutterstock.com. Anwesha Pattanaik Fri, November 13, 2026 at 4:24 AM EST 2 min read MSFT -2.49% Trade MSFT on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
A widespread outage has been impacting several Microsoft services, including Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft 365, since Thursday and is continuing into Friday, preventing thousands of users worldwide from accessing key communication tools.
Businesses and government agencies that rely on these platforms for email, messaging, and collaboration have reported significant disruption as Microsoft works to identify and address the source of the problem.
The outage, which began on 12 November, was linked to issues with some servers.
Microsoft reported that features of Microsoft 365 relying on Exchange Online, its cloud-based messaging platform, were especially affected.
Other components of Microsoft 365 not dependent on Exchange Online remained functional.
At the peak of the incident, Downdetector reported 138,058 complaints concerning Outlook at around 6:00PM GMT on Thursday, falling to roughly 34,490 by 11:00PM GMT as partial recovery was observed.
The company said it detected a process responsible for establishing secure server connections had become overwhelmed, leading servers to stop processing requests.
This disruption also affected AI services from OpenAI and Anthropic, which are integrated with Microsoft 365 connectors.
A Microsoft spokesperson said: "We are aware and investigating reports of users experiencing issues with Microsoft 365 services, primarily issues with Exchange Online."
Microsoft issued frequent updates, providing details of efforts to restore normal service.
According to the company, the process of improving capacity was not progressing as anticipated.
Microsoft, in an update, said: "We're identifying alternate workstreams that can be applied to increase capacity in the face of sustained traffic management imbalances."
The tech giant reported partial recovery in some regions following the application of certain fixes.
However, these measures did not result in fully sustained recovery.
Actions taken included scaling up virtual machines to reduce server load and forcing synchronisation of recent network changes, although not all machines synced as needed, which delayed broader recovery.
Microsoft also reverted a recent network configuration change coinciding with the start of the outage, evaluating whether it contributed to the incident.
Temporary traffic restrictions were put in place in selected locations to stabilise affected servers, with a gradual restoration of connectivity planned as systems improved.
The company specified that the issue was due to a reduced number of available servers, not an overall increase in traffic.
Microsoft stated it would continue monitoring the effectiveness of recovery measures and make further adjustments as necessary.
"Microsoft services outage disrupts Outlook and Teams worldwide" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.
