A global Microsoft service outage has caused difficulties accessing Outlook email and using various Microsoft 365 tools. The disruption, which began on Thursday, November 12, continued through the early hours of Friday, November 13, affecting businesses, government agencies, and users in several countries. Microsoft has reported partial service restoration, although initial adjustments have not yet fully restored service, according to Reuters.
The problem is particularly affecting Exchange Online, the email infrastructure used by numerous organizations. Users may encounter difficulties accessing their mailboxes from Outlook in a web browser, the desktop application, or mobile devices. Delays in message delivery may also occur, according to Microsoft communications reported by the University of Pennsylvania's IT department.
Increase in cases in Spain
The Downdetector screenshot provided for this news item, corresponding to its Spanish edition and updated to the8:38Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft 365 are among the top-ranked products in the "Most Notified Right Now" category. Microsoft Store and Microsoft Teams round out the top ten.
The graphs for Outlook, Microsoft 365, Teams, and Copilot show a surge in notifications in their final stages. There are also spikes in the OneDrive and Azure dashboards, although the image doesn't include figures, percentages of affected users, or a timeline to pinpoint when each increase began.
The screenshot also includes alerts about non-Microsoft platforms, such as Gmail, Google, and WhatsApp. Their presence on the same panel does not allow us to conclude that they share the same source of the issue or that there is a single outage affecting all of these services.
The email outage affects other tools
The outage extends beyond the inbox. Microsoft 365 features that need to query Exchange Online data, such as email, contacts, or calendar, may also be affected.
In Teams, problems may affect the calendar and meeting scheduling. However, the technical advisory distinguishes these functions from the main messaging and online meetings, which remain mostly operational. It also identifies potential difficulties with Copilot and other tools connected to email services. Therefore, the issue does not mean that all Microsoft applications are completely unusable.
Microsoft is working on the recovery
The company explained that some of its servers became unavailable, increasing the strain on the remaining infrastructure. Measures implemented included restarts, traffic redistribution, and changes aimed at restoring capacity and stabilizing connections. Some regions have experienced partial improvements, according to updates reported by The National.
The outage has affected business communications and government agencies in several countries. Microsoft has stated that it has no evidence of a cyberattack, while it continues to investigate and repair the affected infrastructure, according to AP.
Information is still developing.The scope and status of the recovery may change as Microsoft releases new updates.
