Microsoft says efforts to fix global outage 'not going as expected' with millions impacted worldwide

Detailed summary

Millions reported issues with Microsoft Outlook, the company's workplace messaging app, Teams, its AI assistant, Copilot, as well as other Microsoft 365 services.

By JOSHUA HAINING, NEWS REPORTER and WILKO MARTÍNEZ-CACHERO, US REPORTER and ELIZABETH HAIGH, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER

Published: 03:53 GMT, 13 November 2026 | Updated: 10:22 GMT, 13 November 2026

Microsoft is battling to fix the widespread outage that has knocked out various platforms, including Outlook, for millions worldwide with the company acknowledging that efforts to restore services were 'not taking as expected.'

Millions of users around the world began reporting that Outlook was down shortly after 6pm GMT on Thursday, in what experts have dubbed the 'most disruptive email-related business outage of all time'.

More than 14 hours later, users are still unable to open their inboxes, send emails and access other Microsoft services.

Governments, police forces and numerous companies around the world have reported problems with their services, but no definitive cause has been given.

More than 430 million people use Microsoft's suite of subscription service apps, though the company has not confirmed exactly how many users are affected by the outage.

Users have also reported issues with Microsoft's workplace messaging app, Teams, its artificial intelligence assistant, Copilot, as well as other Microsoft 365 services, in at least 74 countries.

Microsoft said on Thursday night that it was attempting to identify 'alternate workstreams that can be applied to increase capacity in the face of sustained traffic management imbalances' in order to address the outage.

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