Suryaa Now International Desk: A major global service disruption at Microsoft has affected tens of thousands of users, leaving many unable to access their emails, workplace communication tools and other cloud-based applications. The outage, reported on Thursday, November 12, disrupted several services, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Copilot and Microsoft 365.
According to outage-tracking platform Downdetector, reports of problems with Outlook surged to nearly 130,000 shortly after 1pm Eastern Time (18:00 GMT). Users reported difficulties opening their inboxes, sending emails and receiving messages. By around 3pm Eastern Time, the number of reported issues had declined to approximately 77,000.
The disruption also affected Microsoft's workplace messaging platform Teams and its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot, along with other Microsoft 365 services. Microsoft acknowledged that users in multiple regions could experience connectivity problems.
Microsoft said several servers had unexpectedly become unavailable after failing automated health checks. This placed additional pressure on the remaining operational infrastructure, contributing to widespread connectivity problems.
In updates posted on X, the company said it was investigating reports of users experiencing difficulties accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods.
Microsoft initially attempted to address the disruption by testing configuration changes designed to redistribute network traffic across its infrastructure. It also began restarting affected services and working to bring unavailable servers back online.
However, the company acknowledged that its initial recovery efforts had not delivered the expected results and said it was urgently pursuing additional solutions.
Microsoft subsequently reported progress in its recovery operations, saying that a portion of the affected servers had been returned to service and remained stable.
The company also began redirecting traffic through alternative network routes to reduce pressure on affected infrastructure. It warned that service restoration could take time as users' applications and connections gradually reconnect.
Despite these efforts, Microsoft had not initially provided a definitive timeline for the complete restoration of all affected services.
The outage highlighted the widespread dependence of businesses, educational institutions and organisations on Microsoft's cloud-based productivity ecosystem.
Outlook is widely used for professional communication, while Teams supports virtual meetings and workplace collaboration. Microsoft 365 applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and OneDrive, are essential tools for organisations managing documents and business operations.
Disruptions to these platforms can affect daily operations, communication, productivity and access to important files.
Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot was also among the services experiencing reported connectivity problems.
Microsoft's initial investigation focused on server availability, infrastructure load and connectivity issues. There was no indication at that stage that the outage had been caused by a cyberattack.
The incident has renewed attention on the reliability of large-scale cloud infrastructure and the risks organisations face when their operations depend heavily on a single technology provider.
As Microsoft continues its recovery efforts, businesses and users worldwide are awaiting the full restoration of its services.