Microsoft 365 Outage Causes Nine-Hour Global Disruption
Configuration errors and traffic spikes halted Outlook, Teams, and Office apps across 74 countries on November 12 and 13.
By Diego Mendoza ·
Microsoft 365 services experienced a nine-hour outage that blocked access to core workplace tools on November 12 and 13.
The disruption began on November 12, when users reported failures in Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Copilot. By the following day, The Guardian had recorded nearly 130,000 problem reports across 74 countries. Microsoft confirmed it was investigating the issue and stated there was no indication of a cyberattack. The company cited server configuration issues and increased traffic loads as contributing factors. Engineers made several attempts to restore service, but some servers became unavailable again once traffic returned.
Outlook Exchange services faced the most severe interruptions, while Teams chats and meetings were less affected. Microsoft reported that it had restored some Teams functionality in North America, although connectivity problems persisted for certain users. The outage also impacted external integrations connected to OpenAI and Anthropic services.
As of the latest update, Microsoft is working to restore affected systems and redirect traffic. The company is moving to stabilize its infrastructure to end interruptions to email, collaboration tools, and cloud-based productivity services.
