Microsoft outage disrupts millions worldwide as Outlook, Teams and 365 Services remain down
(Microsoft’s widespread technology outage disrupted businesses, schools and government agencies across more than 70 countries)
A widespread Microsoft outage that began Thursday afternoon, November 12, continued into Friday, November 13, disrupting millions of users and leaving businesses, government agencies, schools and other organizations struggling to maintain normal operations.
The disruption affected numerous Microsoft services, including Outlook, Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint and Copilot. Users reported problems accessing email, calendars, files and other essential workplace tools, while services connected to Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure also experienced difficulties.
According to outage tracker Downdetector, hundreds of thousands of users across more than 70 countries reported problems. Among the affected organizations were shipping giant Maersk, European financial exchange operator Euronext and government agencies in several countries. Some schools in Australia’s Northern Territory also experienced technical difficulties, disrupting online education.
The outage extended beyond Microsoft’s own products. OpenAI reported problems with ChatGPT, while Anthropic said its Microsoft 365 connector and Claude for Outlook were experiencing difficulties. Both companies were working to mitigate the disruptions.
Microsoft initially attributed the problems to unusually high traffic and infrastructure failures that left multiple servers unexpectedly unavailable, placing additional strain on the remaining systems. Engineers began taking affected systems offline for repairs before gradually bringing them back online.
Recovery Underway, but E-mail Delays Continue
In updates Friday morning, Microsoft reported encouraging recovery progress, with broader improvements across North America, sustained improvements throughout much of Europe and positive recovery signals in the Asia-Pacific region.
However, the company warned that some customers could continue experiencing intermittent connectivity problems and delayed email delivery while repairs and mitigation efforts continued.
Microsoft said engineering teams were prioritizing the protection and delivery of delayed emails, extending the delivery retry window to 48 hours to help prevent messages from being lost during the recovery process.
The company also emphasized that it had found no evidence of malicious activity or a cyberattack associated with the incident. A full post-incident report detailing the root cause and steps to prevent similar disruptions is expected after recovery is complete.
The widespread failure has renewed concerns about the world’s growing dependence on a relatively small number of major technology providers. Experts say businesses and government agencies need reliable backup communications, alternative systems and emergency procedures to keep essential operations running when major cloud services fail.
For millions of Microsoft customers, however, the immediate priority remained much simpler: getting their email, calendars and everyday business tools working again.
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(Sources: CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Microsoft, Office.com)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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