London: Microsoft is working to resolve a widespread global service outage that has disrupted several of its platforms, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365, and its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Copilot.
The disruption reportedly affected tens of thousands of users across 74 countries and territories within about one hour, according to the outage-monitoring website Downdetector.
The company noted that some of its infrastructure was experiencing elevated loads across multiple regions, which was likely contributing to connectivity errors. High server loads can strain Microsoft’s systems, affecting its ability to deliver services and maintain stable connections.
In its latest update on X, Microsoft stated that its technical teams were seeing positive results from efforts to restart the affected systems. The company added that it was actively monitoring infrastructure performance while continuing to work towards resolving the disruption.
According to Downdetector, reports of problems with Microsoft services were first detected shortly after 16:15 GMT on November 12. Microsoft highlighted that the Exchange Online incident began at 16:17 UTC, with reports of Outlook problems beginning to increase significantly at around 17:25 UTC.
Outlook-related complaints peaked at nearly 140,000 reports globally around 18:00 GMT, representing more than 2,000 times the usual level. By 18:25 UTC, reports concerning five Microsoft services combined had reached 19,650 per minute, compared with fewer than 15 per minute on an average November 12.
The outage quickly spread beyond the United States, with Downdetector recording a tenfold increase in reports from the UK at 17:43 UTC, India at 23:21 local time and New Zealand at 06:55 local time. Nearly three in every 10 reports between 17:00 and 18:55 UTC originated outside the US, highlighting the widespread impact of the disruption.
Downdetector’s figures showed that reports concerning Microsoft 365, Copilot, Teams and OneDrive each increased more than a hundredfold, while reports involving Azure rose by around a hundredfold. Problems affecting Xbox, GitHub and LinkedIn, which are also owned by Microsoft, increased by considerably smaller margins.
Microsoft 365 applications affected
The disruption affected several Microsoft 365 applications, with Exchange Online, which supports the Outlook email service, experiencing significant connectivity problems.
Some users were unable to access emails, view certain files, or retrieve information from their calendars. Copilot was also affected, while Microsoft said that the messaging and online meeting functions remained largely operational.
The issue had continued for at least eight hours, according to Downdetector, which reported more than 28,000 affected users in its latest figures. At 19:38 UTC, reports were still exceeding 11,000 per minute, indicating that the disruption remained widespread.
Microsoft has not yet provided a definitive timeline for the full restoration of all affected services, but said it was continuing recovery efforts and monitoring the performance of its systems.
Although early recovery efforts showed positive results, the company had yet to confirm when all services would be fully restored. The widespread disruption highlighted the global reliance on Microsoft’s cloud-based platforms for email, workplace communication, file access and AI-powered services.
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