A widespread Microsoft outage has disrupted services used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, with problems affecting Outlook, Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams and Copilot. The disruption began on Thursday, 12 November, and continued into the early hours of Friday, as the company struggled to restore normal operations.
The initial findings point to an unexpected loss of server capacity, which redirected user traffic to the remaining available systems and caused further overload. Microsoft has not yet established the definitive cause of the incident, while repeated server failures have complicated recovery efforts.
Scale of the global disruption
The outage affected businesses, public services and users relying on Microsoft's applications for everyday communication and operations.
According to Reuters, Downdetector recorded more than 130,000 reports of problems in the United States at the peak of the disruption.
Similar issues were reported across several Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia, India and Japan.
The main services affected were Outlook and Exchange Online, Microsoft's email platforms. Disruptions were also recorded in Microsoft Teams and Copilot.
What caused the outage
Microsoft identified a serious disruption to its server infrastructure, which triggered a series of technical problems across its systems.
According to the company, a large number of servers unexpectedly went offline, forcing user traffic to be redirected to the remaining available servers. This increased the workload on those systems, resulting in overload and connection difficulties.
Microsoft clarified that the increased server workload was not caused by a sudden rise in the number of users, but by the reduced availability of its servers.
As part of its investigation, the company is examining whether recent changes to system configurations contributed to the disruption. However, the definitive cause has not yet been established.
Why recovery efforts are proving difficult
Restoring normal operations has proved more complicated than initially expected.
According to Microsoft's technical updates, some servers that were brought back online stopped responding again once they began receiving user traffic.
The company identified an issue involving a key operational process on the affected servers, which becomes overloaded and limits their ability to handle requests.
To address the disruption, Microsoft has:
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Redirected traffic across its available infrastructure.
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Restarted affected systems.
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Temporarily restricted certain connections.
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Examined the possibility of reverting to previous software configurations.
However, the initial interventions have not delivered the expected results.
The repeated loss of server responsiveness has made it difficult to stabilise the infrastructure and restore services consistently.
Government services, schools and businesses affected
The consequences extended beyond personal email accounts, affecting government services, educational institutions and businesses.
In Australia, disruptions were reported across public services, courts and educational institutions.
Some healthcare facilities were forced to temporarily revert to paper-based procedures because of difficulties accessing electronic systems.
The disruption highlighted the extent to which organisations depend on Microsoft's infrastructure for essential daily operations.
Microsoft rules out indications of cyberattack
Microsoft said there was currently no indication that the outage had been caused by malicious activity or a cyberattack.
The company continues to investigate the technical failure and the factors that contributed to the loss of server capacity.
The incident once again highlights the dependence of businesses and public organisations on cloud computing services operated by major technology companies. A significant technical failure affecting a single provider can disrupt multiple services simultaneously across different countries.
Source: Reuters
