Microsoft's global service disruption continued on Friday, November 13, affecting Outlook, Teams, Copilot and several Microsoft 365 applications. Users across countries, including India, reported difficulties accessing email and workplace tools, while the company worked to restore affected services.
The outage began on Thursday, November 12, and affected users in 74 countries and territories, according to reports. The BBC reported that complaints about Outlook peaked at nearly 1.4 lakh on Downdetector around 6 pm GMT on Thursday. The actual number of affected users could be higher, as the platform records only complaints submitted by users.
What caused the outage?
Microsoft attributed the disruption to infrastructure and server problems, saying that parts of its infrastructure were experiencing elevated loads across multiple regions, contributing to connectivity errors.
The company said that a large number of servers had unexpectedly become unavailable. It also identified failed health checks involving a component on affected servers, according to CNN. Microsoft said that some servers became unresponsive and had to be restarted.
The company said that it was not aware of any malicious activity behind the incident. The BBC also reported that there was no indication that the outage had been caused by a cyberattack.
Which services and users were affected?
The disruption affected Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services that rely on Exchange Online. Users reported difficulties accessing inboxes, sending and receiving emails, viewing calendar information and using workplace applications.
CNN reported that the outage disrupted businesses, schools and government operations across countries. Some Australian businesses were unable to print invoices, while certain schools faced difficulties conducting online classes.
The disruption also affected third-party services. Microsoft 365 connectors used by OpenAI and Anthropic experienced problems, according to reports.
What is Microsoft doing to restore services?
Microsoft said that it was implementing traffic-management measures, adjusting protocols and restoring affected servers to improve capacity and stability. It also reported expanding virtual machine capacity to reduce pressure on the infrastructure.
However, the company acknowledged that some recovery measures were not working as expected and that service capacity had not returned to normal. In a subsequent update, Microsoft reported positive results from its efforts to stabilise servers.
Impact in India
The New Indian Express reported fresh complaints from Indian users about Outlook and Teams disruptions on Friday. IndiGo also said its email support services had been affected, advising customers to use alternative assistance channels.
Microsoft has not announced a definitive timeline for complete restoration.