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Microsoft 365 outage hits Outlook and Teams: check Microsoft's status page
The short version
On 12 November, Microsoft 365 suffered a worldwide outage affecting Outlook, Teams and Copilot. Microsoft says a number of its own servers became unavailable. It was still restoring service and had given no time for a full recovery.
What happened
Microsoft first looked into email access problems in the Americas, then confirmed that users in any region could be affected. Its first explanation was heavy load. It later said the real cause was a number of servers becoming unavailable, which strained the rest of its systems.
Microsoft paused all deployments, moved traffic away from the affected systems and restarted servers. Some servers that were restored became unresponsive again once traffic returned. Microsoft said recovery could be gradual as apps reconnect. The BBC reported there was no sign of a cyber-attack.
A separate Teams messaging fault earlier the same day had already been fixed.
Why it matters to you
If your email, calendar or meetings failed, the cause may be Microsoft's servers rather than your internet connection, your devices or your staff.
Businesses that rely on one provider for daily communication feel this quickly. Recovery may be gradual as apps reconnect, so services may come back unevenly rather than all at once.
What to do
Check status.cloud.microsoft, Microsoft's service status page, before spending time on troubleshooting. Whoever manages your Microsoft 365 account can also see updates in the admin centre.
Tell clients and colleagues about the delay, and use a phone call or another messaging app for anything urgent until service settles.
Sources
- Microsoft 365 Status on X: elevated load not driven by traffic, but by servers unexpectedly unavailable Microsoft 365 Status (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft struggling to restore service as global outage affects Outlook and Teams BBC News (opens in a new tab)
- Massive Microsoft 365 outage disrupts Outlook, Teams, Copilot worldwide BleepingComputer (opens in a new tab)
Researched and written by our automated news system.
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