Microsoft Outage Hits NHS, Police and UN Climate Talks as Microsoft Rolls Back a Network Change

Microsoft's global outage, which began around midday Eastern Time on Thursday 12 November 2026, has disrupted hospitals, police forces and international talks as well as workplace email. Microsoft says email queues are now close to normal and that recovery is under way in Europe and North America, but it still has not named a root cause. Its updates describe servers that failed automated health checks and were pulled out of service, leaving the rest to buckle under the extra load, and it has begun rolling back a recent network configuration change. It says it has no indication of an attack.

Key takeaways

• Recovery under way: Microsoft says email queues are "significantly reduced and approaching normal levels," with broader improvements in North America and sustained improvements across much of Europe.
• Not fixed: some users may still see intermittent access problems or delayed email, and Microsoft has not given a root cause.
• A configuration change: Microsoft has begun rolling back a recent network configuration change that coincided with the start of the disruption. It has not confirmed that change as the cause.
• Real-world impact: some NHS hospitals cancelled appointments, including some planned C-sections; Police Scotland's email was affected; delegates at the UN climate summit in Antalya were hit; and New York City suspended Friday's evictions.
• No attack indicated: Microsoft says there is "no indication" the outage was the result of malicious or cyber activity.

Confidence: OFFICIAL for Microsoft's statements and the New York notice; REPORTED for the NHS, police and summit impacts, which come from news reports. This article reflects reporting up to Friday 13 November 2026. Microsoft had not confirmed full restoration when it was written. For the first day of the outage, see our earlier report.

What Microsoft says now#

In its Friday updates, Microsoft said it was seeing "continued recovery progress across affected regions, with broader improvements now observed in North America and sustained improvements across much of Europe," and encouraging signs in Asia Pacific. It said email queues were "significantly reduced and approaching normal levels," while warning that some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as recovery continues.

To protect messages that were delayed, Microsoft said it would extend its email timeout window to 48 hours, according to ABC News.

The outage began around midday Eastern Time on Thursday. Reports of its length differ: Ynet describes an 18-hour outage, while other outlets give shorter or longer periods, and Microsoft has not published a total.

What went wrong, according to Microsoft#

Microsoft's account of the failure has changed as the outage has gone on. Its updates so far describe a chain of events:

1. Servers pulled out. A number of servers that run Microsoft 365 failed automated health checks and were removed from service.
2. The rest buckled. The remaining servers took the extra load, and a process that sets up secure connections became overwhelmed, so affected servers stopped handling requests.
3. Workarounds. Microsoft began testing a way to bypass the component that processes the health checks, which let some servers return to service. Servers that came back could fail again once traffic returned.
4. Rollback. Microsoft then began reversing a recent network configuration change that coincided with the start of the disruption.

Microsoft has not confirmed that this change caused the outage. Earlier in the incident it had said it had not identified any recent change correlated with the start of the impact, which makes the later rollback a shift in its account.

On the question of an attack, Microsoft executive vice president Charles Lamanna posted on X that "there is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity."

The real-world cost#

NHS and ambulance services (England). Outlets citing the BBC report that some hospitals cancelled appointments, including some planned C-sections, because NHS scheduling calendars were linked to Microsoft systems. Some hospitals limited referrals to urgent cases, and some staff returned to paper records. The GMB union described a serious impact on ambulance and NHS trusts. NHS England told patients to attend appointments unless they had been told they were cancelled.

Scotland. Police Scotland said its online contact forms were down and its email was affected, and that its ability to respond to emergencies and its 999 and 101 phone lines were not affected. NHS Grampian said some GP practices lost access to a hosted records system, and NHS Shetland had email outages. Edinburgh's council said it could not send or receive email. The Scottish Government activated its resilience arrangements to assess the impact.

UN climate summit. At the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, which runs from 9 to 20 November, delegates said the outage slowed communication and made it hard to open and share negotiating documents. Some said they were relying more on WhatsApp.

New York City. The city's Department of Investigation said that after consulting the New York City Civil Court, it instructed City Marshals to suspend all evictions scheduled for Friday 13 November because of the outage affecting Microsoft systems. The city's emergency management department warned residents that emailing city agencies or using online services that rely on Microsoft could be delayed.

Is Microsoft 365 still down?#

Is the Microsoft outage over? Not fully. Microsoft says recovery is continuing, email queues are near normal, and some users may still see intermittent problems. It has not declared the incident resolved.

What caused the outage? Microsoft has not named a root cause. It says servers failed health checks, the rest were overloaded, and it is rolling back a recent network configuration change, which it has not confirmed as the cause.

Was it a cyber attack? Microsoft says there is no indication that it was.

Which regions are recovering? Microsoft reports improvements in North America and Europe, and encouraging signs in Asia Pacific.

Where can I check the current status? The Microsoft 365 Status account on X and the service health page in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

Our read · RAGE Intel assessment

The picture Microsoft's updates paint is of a cascade: some servers failed health checks, the rest could not carry their load, and fixes that restarted servers did not hold because the load returned. A recent network configuration change is a plausible trigger and the rollback suggests Microsoft thinks so, but it has not said so, and its account has already shifted once.

The more important lesson is concentration. One vendor's failure, lasting most of a day, reached hospital scheduling, police email, an international negotiation and eviction courts at the same time. That points to how many public services now depend on a single cloud provider, and it will be a question for regulators and for the organisations that were hit.

This is an assessment, not a finding. It will change when Microsoft publishes a root cause or a post-incident review.

What to watch#

• A root-cause report from Microsoft, and whether the network configuration change is named as the trigger.
• Full restoration, and whether the improvements in Europe and North America hold.
• Consequences for services: how long the NHS and Police Scotland take to clear their backlogs, and whether cancelled appointments are rescheduled.
• Scrutiny: calls from governments and regulators for a review of reliance on a single provider.

This story is developing. RAGE X will update it as new information is confirmed.

Sources#

• CBS News, Microsoft says it is seeing "continued recovery progress" as it battles major worldwide outage, 13 November 2026
• Global News, Microsoft 365 outage continues, but company says email queues nearing 'normal', 13 November 2026
• ABC News, Microsoft Outlook outage updates: 'Progress toward recovery' as email disruption now on 2nd day, 13 November 2026
• CNN, Microsoft outage live updates: Email service is 'approaching normal levels', 12–13 November 2026
• Ynet, Microsoft services begin recovering after 18-hour global outage, 13 November 2026
• AsiaOne, Microsoft services outage: Executive says no indication of cyberattack, 13 November 2026
• SecurityWeek, Microsoft Struggles to Restore Email and Other Services in a Global Outage, 13 November 2026
• The Week, How hospitals, schools and police in UK were hit by Microsoft's global outage, 13 November 2026
• The Scotsman, Microsoft outage: 999, NHS 24 and other frontline services not impacted, 13 November 2026
• Scottish Daily Express, Microsoft outage in Scotland: list of organisations facing issues, 13 November 2026
• AOL, Scottish Government activates resilience operations after Microsoft outage, 13 November 2026
• NYC Department of Investigation on X, Suspension of evictions scheduled for 13 November, 13 November 2026
• ABC News (Australia), Microsoft outage hits users worldwide, affecting Teams, Outlook and Copilot, 13 November 2026
• France 24, Microsoft reports 'improvements' to Outlook services in North America, Europe, 13 November 2026
• GeekWire, 'A huge pain in the ass': Microsoft 365 starts to recover after a day of global email turmoil, 13 November 2026
• BBC News coverage of NHS and police disruption, as cited by the outlets above (not independently read)