Microsoft outage hits Outlook, Teams and Microsoft 365 as thousands report service disruptions

Microsoft suffered a widespread outage on Thursday, November 12, disrupting Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft 365 services and leaving thousands of users struggling to access email and workplace applications. The disruption spread across multiple regions, with nearly 130,000 problem reports involving Outlook alone, according to outage-tracking website Downdetector.

The trouble began shortly before 1 p.m. Eastern Time, prompting users to report failed email connections, inaccessible inboxes, and problems using Microsoft’s cloud-based services.

At the height of the disruption, Downdetector recorded more than 130,000 Outlook problem reports, alongside tens of thousands involving Microsoft 365 and thousands more affecting Teams. The figures reflect user-submitted reports rather than the confirmed number of people affected.

For businesses that depend on Microsoft’s software to communicate, schedule meetings, and manage daily operations, the outage created immediate headaches. Outlook users reported problems sending and receiving messages, and some employees had trouble connecting to Teams.

Microsoft acknowledged the disruption and confirmed that its engineers were investigating problems affecting Exchange Online, the cloud infrastructure supporting email services for millions of business customers.

“We are aware and investigating reports of users experiencing issues with Microsoft 365 services, primarily issues with Exchange Online,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC. “We appreciate our customers’ patience while we work to restore services as soon as possible.”

Microsoft Traces Outage to Server Failures as Recovery Efforts Continue

Microsoft initially attributed the connectivity problems to elevated infrastructure loads across multiple regions.

As engineers investigated, the company discovered that several servers had unexpectedly become unavailable, forcing the remaining infrastructure to handle additional traffic. Some affected servers were failing automated health checks, complicating recovery efforts.

The company began redistributing traffic and restarting affected servers to restore access.

By 4 p.m. Eastern Time, Microsoft reported progress after testing a different method for checking server health.

“We’ve now validated an alternative service health check method” that helped restore some affected servers, Microsoft said in an update on X.

The company said it was extending the change across its infrastructure and preparing automated recovery systems to detect and restart unresponsive servers.

“We’ve taken steps to prevent additional servers from being impacted while we work to return the affected servers to service,” Microsoft said on X.

We’ve not identified any recent change correlated with the start of impact; however, our investigation indicates the failed health checks may originate from a specific component that’s responsible for processing server health. We’ve taken steps to prevent additional servers from being impacted while we work to return the affected servers to service. More info under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as https://t.co/pYdahqxDv3 if the admin center is not available to you.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 12, 2026

The company had earlier reported resolving a separate Teams disruption in North America, but users continued reporting connectivity problems across its services.

The outage raised fresh questions about the reliability of cloud infrastructure that businesses increasingly depend on for everyday operations.

Microsoft 365 sits at the center of workplace communication for organizations ranging from small startups to multinational corporations. A disruption to Exchange Online can prevent employees from accessing critical messages, responding to customers, or coordinating work across teams.

The incident came amid reports of problems involving other technology platforms. Downdetector users reported issues with Amazon Web Services and Google, though there was no confirmed evidence linking those reports to Microsoft’s disruption.

Amazon pushed back against suggestions that its cloud infrastructure was experiencing a similar outage.

In a statement posted on X, Amazon said its services were “operating normally” and that an “unrelated disruption elsewhere on the internet is prompting some inaccurate news reports.”

The disruption reached beyond Microsoft’s own applications. Reuters reported that OpenAI was investigating problems involving Microsoft service connectors, and Anthropic reported an upstream issue affecting its Microsoft 365 connector.

Microsoft had not disclosed the underlying cause of the server failures or provided a firm timeline for full restoration in the recovery updates reviewed.

For businesses caught in the disruption, the incident underscores a familiar vulnerability: when a major cloud provider experiences technical problems, the effects can spread far beyond a single application, interrupting work across organizations that rely on the same infrastructure.

This is a developing story.