Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook, Teams and Copilot services
Microsoft said overloaded server processes caused capacity loss as Outlook problem reports peaked near 129,000 before declining.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
2 min read
A Microsoft outage on November 12 disrupted Outlook email, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services, leaving users unable to reach inboxes or connect to workplace tools. Microsoft said it was restoring affected servers and rerouting traffic, but described recovery as limited in its latest update.
Outlook drew 128,874 reports on Downdetector at 1:09 p.m. ET, according to USA Today. Those figures are user-submitted problem reports, not a confirmed count of people affected.
Which Microsoft services were affected by the outage?
Users reported that they could not send or receive email, or open their Outlook inboxes, Al Jazeera reported. Microsoft also listed disruptions affecting Teams, SharePoint, Copilot, Defender, To Do and Purview, according to USA Today.
Microsoft said the connectivity issue could affect Microsoft 365 users in any region. RNZ reported that the company initially referred to reports in the Americas before broadening that assessment.
What Microsoft said went wrong
Microsoft said a core process on affected servers was becoming overwhelmed, reducing available capacity, USA Today reported. The company also said some servers were unavailable and failing automated health checks, which placed greater demand on the servers still operating, according to Al Jazeera.
Microsoft did not provide a timetable for complete restoration in the updates cited by Al Jazeera.
Reports declined as Microsoft worked on recovery
Microsoft said it paused deployments, moved traffic off affected infrastructure and restarted servers. It also said it was validating servers before returning them to service, USA Today reported.
Outlook reports had fallen to 32,513 by 6:25 p.m. ET, while Microsoft 365 had 11,294 reports at 6:23 p.m. ET, according to USA Today. At about 6:30 p.m. ET, Microsoft said it had returned some affected servers and was seeing limited recovery as capacity came back.
- Outlook reports peaked at 128,874 at 1:09 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector data cited by USA Today.
- Microsoft 365 reports exceeded 47,000 at about 1:20 p.m. ET, USA Today reported.
- By shortly before 3 p.m. ET, Outlook reports had fallen to about 77,000, Al Jazeera reported.
The declining reports indicated that some users were reconnecting, but the available updates did not establish that all affected services had been fully restored.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.