Microsoft 365 Outage: Fixes Fail as Outlook, Teams and Copilot Stay Down Across 74 Countries

Microsoft says its attempts to fix a global Microsoft 365 outage are not "taking as expected," more than 10 hours after Outlook, Teams and other services began failing on Thursday 12 November 2026. Microsoft says the outage was not caused by a cyber attack. It says a number of servers became unavailable and left the remaining infrastructure overloaded, and that servers it brought back have failed again once traffic returned. Downdetector shows problems in 74 countries and territories, and OpenAI and Anthropic both report knock-on problems with their Microsoft connectors.

Key takeaways

• Fixes are failing: Microsoft says changes it has applied are "not taking as expected." Recovery in some regions has not held.
• Not a cyber attack: Microsoft says the outage was not caused by a security incident or by a surge in traffic. It has not yet named a root cause.
• Wide reach: Downdetector reports problems in 74 countries and territories, mostly in the Americas, Europe and Australia. More than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, according to Microsoft's website.
• Services hit: Exchange Online (Outlook email), Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Defender XDR.
• No time to fix: Microsoft has not said when service will be fully restored.

Confidence: OFFICIAL for Microsoft's statements; REPORTED for the scale and impact figures, which come from Downdetector and news reports. This article reflects reporting up to the morning of 13 November 2026. Microsoft had not confirmed full restoration when it was written. Update, 13 November: see our follow-up on the impact on hospitals, police and the UN climate talks, and Microsoft's network rollback.

What happened#

The outage began shortly before 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday 12 November, when users started reporting that they could not open Outlook, according to CNBC. Reports of Outlook problems on Downdetector climbed to about 130,000, and the disruption spread to Teams, SharePoint and Microsoft's Copilot assistant.

What Microsoft says is wrong#

Microsoft has described a capacity problem, not an attack. According to its updates, a number of servers behind Microsoft 365 became unexpectedly unavailable, which put the remaining servers under strain. A core process on the affected servers became overwhelmed, causing a loss of capacity.

Microsoft's recovery steps so far:

• Restarting servers. Some servers returned to service after a different method of checking their health was validated, but servers that came back can become unresponsive again once they receive traffic.
• Moving traffic. Microsoft is shifting traffic to alternate routes where it can, and has temporarily limited which types of traffic can reach the affected infrastructure in some locations.
• Reviewing recent changes. Microsoft said it was investigating whether reverting a small number of recent configuration updates could speed recovery.

Microsoft said in a later update that the changes applied were "not taking as expected," and that it was reviewing traffic flows to improve routing. It tracked the incident in the Microsoft 365 admin center under references EX1550543 and MO1550821.

Which services are affected, and where#

Microsoft lists Exchange Online (the email service behind Outlook), Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Defender XDR as affected.

• Where: Downdetector says the disruption reached 74 countries and territories, mostly in the Americas, Europe and Australia. Schools, courts and government services in Australia began Friday without email, and New Zealand's foreign ministry told people its ability to receive emails had been affected.
• AI services: OpenAI said it was investigating a problem in which new connections through Microsoft connectors might be broken. Anthropic reported an upstream-provider issue affecting its Microsoft 365 connector.
• Other Microsoft services: smaller, simultaneous outages were reported at Xbox, GitHub and LinkedIn, according to coverage of the outage.
• Scale: more than 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, according to Microsoft's website, so even a partial failure reaches a very large number of workplaces.

Was it a cyber attack?#

Microsoft says no. The company confirmed on Thursday that the outage was not caused by a cyber-security breach, and it has disclosed no evidence of one. It has also said the problem was not caused by a rush of users.

Other points that have come up in coverage:

• A faulty update? Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters that Microsoft officials believed they were dealing with something similar to the CrowdStrike failure of 2024, "where there is an update that has gone awry," as quoted by the BBC. Microsoft has not said this publicly, and it has not confirmed a cause.
• Patch Tuesday. Microsoft's November security updates were released two days earlier, but its service advisories have not linked them to the outage.
• Expert reaction. Paul Spain of New Zealand consultancy Gorilla Technology said that if there was no attack, the outage would amount to "incredible incompetence." Security researcher Troy Hunt said it showed why businesses need contingency plans for cloud failures.

Microsoft 365 outage: questions answered#

Is Microsoft 365 still down? Microsoft had not confirmed full restoration at the time of writing. The company reported partial recovery in some regions that did not hold. Check the Microsoft 365 Status account on X or the service health page in the Microsoft 365 admin center for the current position.

What caused the Microsoft 365 outage? Microsoft has not named a root cause. It says a number of servers became unavailable and overloaded the remaining infrastructure, that the cause was not a cyber attack or a traffic surge, and that it is investigating recent configuration changes.

Which services are down? Outlook (Exchange Online), Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Defender XDR, according to Microsoft.

Which countries are affected? Downdetector reports problems in 74 countries and territories, mostly in the Americas, Europe and Australia.

When will it be fixed? Microsoft has given no estimate.

Our read · RAGE Intel assessment

What is known is limited: Microsoft's own description of failing servers, an overloaded remainder and fixes that have not held. What is not known is why the servers failed in the first place, which is the question that matters. Microsoft has ruled out an attack and a traffic surge, but has not explained what did cause it.

The pattern in Microsoft's updates, where recovered servers fail again once traffic returns, points to a capacity and routing problem rather than a single broken component. That is why restarts have not produced a lasting recovery. The comparison with the CrowdStrike failure comes from a minister relaying what Microsoft officials said, not from Microsoft, and should be treated as unconfirmed.

This is an assessment, not a finding. It will change when Microsoft publishes a cause, or if evidence of a configuration change or attack emerges.

What to watch#

• A root cause from Microsoft, and whether a configuration change or update is named.
• Full restoration, and whether recovered regions stay stable once normal traffic returns.
• A post-incident review from Microsoft, which would give the cause and the timeline.
• Knock-on effects on AI services and other tools that connect to Microsoft 365.

This story is developing. RAGE X will update it as new information is confirmed. For more on digital infrastructure risk, see our cybersecurity coverage.

Sources#

• CNBC, Widespread Microsoft outage takes down Outlook and other 365 services, 12 November 2026
• Forbes Australia, 'Not taking as expected': Microsoft's fixes fail as outage passes 10 hours, 13 November 2026
• CNN, Global Microsoft outage leaves millions without access to Outlook email, Teams and other tools, 12 November 2026
• Business Today, Microsoft 365 disruption hits 74 countries; Outlook, Teams and Copilot knocked offline, 13 November 2026
• The Citizen, Microsoft outage hits Outlook, Teams and Copilot across 74 countries, November 2026
• RTÉ, Microsoft outage drags on with services still unstable, 13 November 2026
• The Korea Times, Microsoft outage drags on for hours, disrupting Outlook, Teams for businesses and governments, 13 November 2026
• Business Standard, Microsoft 365 outage continues as company sees limited recovery in services, 13 November 2026
• Fox Business, Microsoft 365 hit by multi-region connectivity outage, 12 November 2026
• BleepingComputer, Massive Microsoft 365 outage disrupts Outlook, Teams, Copilot worldwide, 12 November 2026
• SecurityWeek, Microsoft 365 Outage Disrupts Outlook, Exchange Online and Teams, November 2026
• Microsoft 365 Status on X, Exchange Online incident EX1550543, 12 November 2026