Microsoft services face widespread outage affecting Outlook and Teams
The disruption impacted Microsoft 365 business and enterprise customers, including Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, according to reports.
A widespread outage hit several Microsoft platforms on Thursday, November 12, leaving many users unable to access services such as Outlook, Microsoft 365, Teams, and Copilot. According to Times Now, Downdetector recorded nearly 130,000 reports regarding Outlook issues shortly after 1 p.m. ET.
Microsoft confirmed the disruption affected multiple services, including SharePoint Online, Microsoft Copilot 365, and Microsoft Defender XDR. The company stated the issue involved users having trouble accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through various connection methods in the Americas.
The company noted that the affected infrastructure was experiencing elevated loads across multiple regions, which likely caused connectivity errors. Microsoft is also investigating an unexpected rise in a specific type of service traffic to see if it contributed to the load.
In an update on X, the Microsoft 365 Status account said, "We're aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact." As a precaution, the company has paused all deployments and configuration changes while reviewing recent changes for any correlation to the event.
WION reported that the current problem affects Microsoft 365 business and enterprise customers rather than consumer tech products. Microsoft is currently restarting and repairing parts of its infrastructure and moving traffic to alternate systems to restore capacity.