Microsoft gradually restores services after global outage lasting over 18 hours

Microsoft is gradually restoring its cloud services, reporting significant improvement in app availability and near-normal email delivery performance, following a widespread global outage that lasted more than 18 hours and affected key services including Outlook, Teams, Copilot, and Microsoft 365 applications.

The company said recovery efforts have made progress in multiple regions, with infrastructure performance improving in Europe and North America, while the Asia-Pacific region remained relatively stable. Communication traffic is gradually returning, with users regaining access to mailboxes and processing delayed emails, though some users continue to experience intermittent issues.

Microsoft previously announced it had restarted parts of the affected infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region before expanding recovery measures to other areas, adding operational capacity to support service stability and enhance performance.

Causes of the Microsoft outage

Explaining the cause of the disruption, Microsoft said the crisis stemmed from technical issues with servers and infrastructure supporting its services, after detecting increased loads in several regions and server failures during automated health checks.

The company added that initial attempts to restore affected servers did not yield the expected results, as some servers struggled to respond when user traffic returned. This required technical updates and additional measures to repair servers and reroute communications through alternative channels.

Microsoft confirmed it has no indication the outage was caused by malicious activity or a cyberattack, and said efforts are ongoing to restore server operations and improve service stability in affected regions.

Microsoft services disrupted in 74 countries

Access issues with Microsoft services began on Thursday, November 12, with Outlook email disruptions, difficulties sending and receiving messages, and loading mailboxes, before spreading to Teams, Copilot, SharePoint, and OneDrive.

According to Downdetector, a website that tracks digital service outages, users in 74 countries and territories reported problems with Microsoft services within about an hour of the outage's onset. Reports of Outlook disruptions in the United States peaked at nearly 130,000 during the crisis.

The outage affected government agencies, companies, and various economic sectors, including aviation, financial services, technology, and maritime transport. Government systems in Australia, Japan, and the United States were also impacted.