Microsoft outage eases after over 24 hours with no full recovery timeline
Microsoft’s Outlook and Teams disruption hit governments, airlines and financial firms worldwide, with more than 7.4 million outage reports.
- A worldwide Microsoft outage affecting services like Outlook and Teams has lasted for over 24 hours, with services slowly recovering but no timeline given for a full restoration.
- The disruption was caused by server problems related to the Exchange Online platform, impacting email, calendars, and some Teams features; Microsoft has ruled out a cyberattack.
- The outage had a significant global impact, affecting government agencies, airlines, and financial institutions, forcing some to use backup systems, paper records, and fax machines.
- The incident is one of Microsoft's longest disruptions, with monitoring site Downdetector recording over 7.4 million problem reports worldwide and estimated insured losses of US$300–500 million.
Microsoft was still working towards full recovery of Outlook, Teams and related services early on Saturday (November 14, 2026), Thai time, after more than 24 hours of worldwide disruption, with no confirmed timetable for complete restoration.
Microsoft’s incident update at 5am Thai time reported sustained recovery but said engineers were monitoring delayed emails and remaining service problems before declaring the incident resolved.
The disruption affected government agencies, businesses, airlines and financial institutions across several countries. Some organisations switched to backup systems, paper records or fax machines to keep operating.
Exchange Online problems disrupt email and calendars
Microsoft attributed the outage to server problems that also affected its Copilot artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. The company expanded the rollout of software fixes to stabilise services, reported no indication of a cyberattack and ruled out AI as the cause.
The affected functions depended on Exchange Online, Microsoft’s cloud-based email and calendar platform. Users encountered problems accessing mailboxes, sending messages, managing calendars and arranging meetings, while functions independent of Exchange Online remained operational.
Microsoft’s service notice clarified that most core Teams functions, including joining calls and meetings, remained available. The disruption affected features such as calendars, invitations and meeting changes, rather than disabling every Teams service.
Outlook and Teams have hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Organisations running Microsoft systems on their own servers, rather than relying on its cloud services, were generally less affected.
Ookla, which owns outage-monitoring website Downdetector, recorded more than 7.4 million reports worldwide. Reports peaked at nearly 20,000 a minute, more than 1,500 times the normal level.
Public services turn to alternative systems
Government agencies in Australia, Japan and the United States were among those affected by the disruption to Microsoft services.
London’s Metropolitan Police experienced problems receiving some online crime reports, although its ability to respond to emergency calls was unaffected.
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) adopted alternative arrangements, including other IT systems and paper records, to maintain local services.
Australia’s intelligence agency and federal police also experienced disruption. Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft did not suspect a cyberattack and that the main impact was on email systems.
Companies face communication delays and interrupted transactions
European exchange operator Euronext reported email problems, while British insurer Aviva activated backup arrangements for its earnings calls. Danish shipping company Maersk advised customers that notifications and updates could be delayed.
OpenAI and Anthropic encountered problems with connectors linking their services to Microsoft systems. Indian airlines IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India also reported disruption to customer support provided by email.
Financial companies in Taiwan adopted alternative working arrangements. One company cancelled a bond repurchase transaction, while another used fax to confirm trades, according to sources cited by Reuters.
Insured losses estimated at US$300–500 million
Morningstar DBRS estimated that the outage could generate worldwide insured losses of US$300–500 million. The ratings firm compared that range with estimated insured losses of US$400 million–1.5 billion from the CrowdStrike outage in 2024.
The latest incident ranks among Microsoft’s longest service disruptions. Microsoft 365 also experienced an outage in January, while a separate Azure cloud outage in October affected Microsoft applications and businesses across several industries.
The disruption renewed concerns about organisations’ dependence on a small number of technology companies for essential email and collaboration services.
Josh Gilbert, a market analyst at eToro, argued that recurring reliability problems could prompt organisations to reconsider how much of their business they entrust to one provider.
However, analysts cited by Reuters questioned whether customers would readily move to competing platforms. Microsoft’s tools are deeply embedded in everyday business processes, making replacement costly and difficult.
