Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft 365 services suffered a major global outage on Thursday leaving tens of thousands of users unable to access their email, cloud applications, and collaboration tools.
Outlook and Teams Service Failure Disrupts Digital Productivity
The service failure disrupted digital productivity tools worldwide. Downdetector logged nearly 130,000 reports for Outlook shortly after 1 pm Eastern Time (6 pm GMT).
Reports later declined to about 50,000 by 4:30 pm Eastern Time. Data from Downdetector recorded more than 97,000 reports specifically for Outlook where the majority of complaints originated from the United States, while PIX11 reported over 100,000 complaints within just one hour.
Users faced difficulties opening web versions of Outlook. In Paris, the Thursday disruption impacted office workers. In Île-de-France, the Thursday disruption impacted office workers. In La Défense, the Thursday disruption impacted office workers using the Microsoft 365 suite, where professional accounts on Business and Enterprise packages were targeted by official alerts.
The status of personal Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com accounts remained unclear alongside social media reports of rejected mail.
Downdetector recorded more than 38,000 user reports for Microsoft 365 and roughly 4,500 reports for Microsoft Teams. In Singapore, Downdetector logged 250 reports for Outlook at 7:05 am on Friday and 152 reports for Microsoft 365.
Outlook reports rose to 535 by 7:55 am, where about 40 percent involved app issues, 25 percent involved receiving messages, and others involved login difficulties.
Microsoft Responds to Infrastructure Strain
Microsoft initially reported investigating issues in the Americas. “confirmed the issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region,” Microsoft confirmed, affecting web versions, desktop applications, smartphone email synchronization, and third-party apps.
We have determined that a portion of the infrastructure is experiencing heavy loads across multiple regions, which is likely contributing to the connectivity errors.
Microsoft told Channel NewsAsia
To stabilize the platform, Microsoft halted all system updates, redirected traffic away from strained servers, and restarted affected infrastructure. Microsoft said it was actively pursuing all pathways to reduce the impact on users.
Microsoft said through Reuters on Friday, November 13, that it was working intensively to lessen the disruption. Microsoft said an earlier Teams disruption affecting North America had been fully resolved.
Artificial Intelligence Connectors Suffer
The server failures extended beyond standard office software, disrupting AI development platforms that rely on Microsoft infrastructure. OpenAI said it was investigating connectivity problems affecting new connections and automated tools linked through Microsoft connectors.
Anthropic said that an upstream issue originating from its Microsoft 365 provider impaired the performance of its own integrations.
