Microsoft 365 users in various countries lost access to Outlook email, Teams meetings, and other cloud services.

The outage began on November 12 and continued into the night of November 13. Microsoft reports gradual improvement in performance, but has not yet announced a full recovery.

The company reports the problem in the Microsoft 365 Status account on X and on the service status page. According to CNN and The Register, the outages also affected Exchange Online, SharePoint, Copilot, Defender for Office 365, and administration tools, including Intune.

We're investigating reports of users experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas. More details can be found in the Microsoft 365 admin center under EX1550543.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 12, 2026

First, Microsoft reported problems in America, and later confirmed that they could affect users in any region.

According to the company's explanation, some servers unexpectedly became unavailable, which increased the load on the rest of the infrastructure. The cause of the overload was the reduction in the number of available servers.

During the check, Microsoft discovered a problem with automatic server health checks. The company also reported that one of the main processes on the affected servers becomes overloaded, after which they stop responding.

Microsoft suspended the rollout of updates, began redistributing connections between servers, and restarting affected systems. An alternative way of checking their status made it possible to return some of the servers to operation.

However, after the flow of requests resumed, some servers again stopped responding. The company admitted that the first attempts at fixing the issue did not produce the expected result.

In the latest of the updates provided, Microsoft reported improvements in stability and an increase in available capacity following traffic optimization. The company is rolling out these changes to other affected regions. It did not provide timelines for full recovery.

What are the consequences of Microsoft outages?

According to CNN, the outage disrupted the operations of businesses, schools, and government institutions. In the US, some employees went home early, and local authorities asked citizens to call instead of sending emails.

In Australia, companies could not print invoices, some schools could not conduct online classes, and courts faced disruptions to live broadcasts. The Australian broadcaster ABC also reported missed online interviews and problems in distribution centers that supply goods to supermarkets.

At its peak, Downdetector recorded about 130,000 reports of problems with Outlook.