Microsoft services hit by global outage, recovery efforts underway

A global outage disrupted Microsoft 365, Outlook and several other Microsoft services for more than 11 hours on Friday, affecting thousands of users and disrupting business operations. The disruption also impacted OpenAI and Anthropic's AI services through their Microsoft 365 connectors, according to agency reports.
Reports of Outlook issues on Downdetector peaked at around 1:30 am on Friday, with 1,38,058 complaints, before declining to approximately 34,490 by 4:30 am.In a statement issued at 3:30 am, Microsoft said it had identified the cause of the disruption and was working to restore affected servers, with services gradually recovering.

We’re continuing our efforts to improve server stability to improve traffic flow. This includes adjusting traffic protocols, redistributing traffic, and applying strategic traffic blocking measures. We're observing partial recovery across regions in which we've applied these adjustments; however, these actions aren't resulting in sustained recovery, so we're reviewing what additional actions we can take to improve overall infrastructure stability. More info under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as https://t.co/pYdahqxDv3 if the admin center is not available to you.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 13, 2026

The company traced the problem to a process responsible for establishing secure connections on affected servers, which became overwhelmed and prevented them from processing requests. Microsoft clarified that the outage was not caused by an overall increase in traffic but by a reduced number of servers available to handle connections.In its latest updates on X, the company said it was scaling up virtual machines to increase capacity and reduce system load. It was also attempting to restore machines stuck in a faulty state by synchronising recent network changes. However, some machines were not syncing as expected, slowing the recovery process.
Microsoft also introduced temporary traffic restrictions in certain locations, restarted affected infrastructure and tested configuration changes before wider implementation. The company said it was monitoring server stability and would continue making adjustments as required.The disruption primarily affected Exchange Online, leaving users unable to access mailboxes through Outlook's web, desktop and mobile applications. Email delivery was also delayed, while some Microsoft 365 applications and administrative services experienced loading issues.
Microsoft Copilot users also reported difficulties accessing Copilot Chat and receiving responses. Its ability to retrieve work-related information, including emails, calendars and files, was also affected.Although Microsoft Teams' core messaging and meeting functions largely continued to work, features dependent on Exchange Online, including calendars and meeting scheduling, faced disruptions.
Other affected services included SharePoint Online, Microsoft Planner, Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Defender, Power BI, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Graph and Windows 365. Several Microsoft 365 Education and Intune features were also impacted.The outage extended to third-party AI platforms. OpenAI said it was investigating problems with Microsoft connectors that could prevent new connections and cause certain tools to malfunction. Anthropic also reported an issue with an upstream provider affecting its Microsoft 365 connector.
The disruption had business implications as well. Electric truck manufacturer Workhorse Group postponed its third-quarter financial results announcement from November 12 to November 16, citing operational disruptions caused by the global Microsoft outage.The incident comes weeks after another disruption to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform affected its productivity services and businesses across several industries worldwide.