Microsoft 365 Outage Disrupts Email and Collaboration Services

Microsoft 365 outage disrupted email and collaboration tools in 74 countries, impacting governments and businesses worldwide.

A Microsoft 365 outage disrupted email and collaboration tools across 74 countries and territories, leaving government offices, businesses and public services struggling to communicate. Microsoft reported partial recovery by Friday, November 13, but said some users still faced intermittent problems as it restored capacity and cleared email backlogs.

Key takeaways

• Outlook, Teams and Copilot were among the affected services.
• Microsoft traced infrastructure strain to unexpectedly unavailable servers.
• Embassies, health facilities and businesses switched communication arrangements.
• Recovery measures included traffic redirection and server restarts.

Microsoft 365 outage reaches users worldwide

Downdetector data showed the outage affecting 74 countries and territories within roughly sixty minutes. Microsoft first looked into Exchange Online connection issues in the Americas, later acknowledging that users anywhere could be affected.

According to Microsoft, the wider incident began on November 12 at 1:26 p.m. Eastern Time. The company’s admin-center notice, MO1550821, flagged connection troubles affecting Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Defender XDR.