A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted Outlook email, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services on Thursday. The incident affected users, companies and some government operations. Nearly 130,000 Outlook users reported problems shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern time, according to The Associated Press.
Microsoft services lose access
Many users could not send or receive email or load their Outlook inboxes. Thousands also reported problems with Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services.
Microsoft said some of its infrastructure was experiencing elevated load. The company also said a number of servers had become unexpectedly unavailable after failing automated health checks, according to the Associated Press.
Businesses face wider disruption
Because the outage affected several Microsoft products, some organizations lost dependable access to email, meetings and workplace messaging at the same time. The Associated Press reported impacts at many companies and some government operations.
Microsoft later said it had successfully restored Teams problems in North America. Some users continued to report connectivity issues, however, while the company investigated disruptions involving email and other services.
Microsoft tracks recovery
Microsoft's public service status page listed a service degradation affecting Microsoft 365 business and enterprise customers and Microsoft consumer products on November 13. Microsoft says the page is used when administrators may be unable to access the normal Microsoft 365 service-health dashboard.
Microsoft's service-health documentation says its service-health system posts active incidents, restoration updates and current service status.
References
- Associated Press. (2026, November 12). Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft email and other apps. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/6376045281feb430c0b923e3a4b251c2
- Microsoft. (2026, November 13). Microsoft service health status. Microsoft. https://sdf.status.cloud.microsoft/
- Microsoft. (n.d.). How to check Microsoft 365 service health. Microsoft Learn. Retrieved November 13, 2026, from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/view-service-health?view=o365-worldwide