The disruption exposed weaknesses in Microsoft’s network infrastructure, hitting businesses, government agencies, airlines and AI companies. The company has ruled out a cyberattack
.BY PC Bureau
November 14: Microsoft has brought an end to a major global service disruption that lasted more than 36 hours, restoring Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 applications after widespread problems affected users across more than 70 countries.
The company confirmed early Saturday, November 14, that it had completed corrective work to address the technical fault. Millions of individuals, businesses and public institutions had faced difficulties accessing emails, workplace applications and other essential services during the outage.
Microsoft said customers using Outlook, Teams and Copilot should no longer experience disruption. However, it is continuing to monitor its systems and clear delayed email traffic. The company has apologised to affected customers and promised a detailed report into the incident.
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Microsoft outage ends after more than 36 hours
The disruption began on Thursday, November 12, when users reported problems accessing Exchange Online mailboxes. The fault subsequently affected several Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, Teams, Copilot, SharePoint, Planner and To Do.
Although Teams continued to support basic messaging and online meetings, functions linked to Exchange Online, including calendars and meeting scheduling, were disrupted. Copilot users also reported difficulties loading conversations and retrieving workplace information stored in emails, calendars and files.
Microsoft traced the problem to a technical fault linked to an earlier network capacity upgrade. The issue emerged after a subsequent network change, exposing an underlying weakness in the infrastructure.
The company ruled out a cyberattack and said artificial intelligence agents were not responsible for the disruption.
In one of its updates, Microsoft stated: “This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents.”
We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services.
This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents. The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions.
Given the scale of demand, we restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage. While this took longer, it helped ensure a stable restoration.
We will provide a full post-incident report once our review is complete.
— Microsoft (@Microsoft) November 13, 2026
Businesses, airlines and government agencies hit
The outage affected more than routine email and office communication. Businesses encountered problems dealing with customers, accessing information and carrying out everyday operations. Government departments and public institutions in several countries also reported difficulties.
In India, IndiGo said its email support system had been affected and warned that it might not receive customer messages. The airline advised passengers seeking urgent assistance to use its website or mobile application.
Air India, by contrast, said its flight operations remained unaffected. It had rerouted email traffic to maintain communication with customers.
The disruption also affected technology companies relying on Microsoft’s infrastructure. OpenAI and Anthropic reported problems with their Microsoft 365 connectors, which enable their services to access workplace information.
Microsoft apologises, promises investigation report
Microsoft said it restored services in stages, checking system stability at each step rather than attempting a simultaneous restart. It also extended the email timeout window to 48 hours to accommodate delayed messages while backlogs were being processed.
“We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners,” the company said, stressing that it takes the trust customers place in its services “extremely seriously”.
Microsoft is continuing to monitor its infrastructure and email queues. It has promised a comprehensive post-incident report once its investigation is complete.
The prolonged outage has renewed concerns about the dependence of businesses, governments and individuals on a small number of major cloud and technology providers. The disruption demonstrated how a technical failure at a single platform can interrupt services across industries and national borders.
It has also highlighted the need for organisations to maintain backup systems and alternative communication channels rather than rely entirely on a single technology provider.
