Microsoft 365 outage persists across United States
- Microsoft 365 is experiencing a global outage affecting 321 million users.
- Connectivity issues began Thursday due to server unavailability and infrastructure strain.
- Recovery attempts on Thursday night failed to provide sustained service restoration.
- The outage impacts a wide range of services including Outlook, Teams, and Exchange.
- As of Friday morning, the disruption remains unresolved in the United States.
A global Microsoft 365 outage persists into Friday morning across the United States and the Asia-Pacific region. Microsoft 365 experienced multi-region connectivity errors on Thursday, November 12, 2026, caused by elevated infrastructure load.
The system disruption remains unresolved as of Friday, November 13, 2026. This outage impacts users of the platform.
Impacted services affect 321 million users
Microsoft 365 has approximately 321 million users globally. Downdetector recorded more than 130,000 reported issues as of 2 p.m.
Users reported widespread problems with Microsoft Outlook and 365 services. Affected platforms include Exchange Online, Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Windows 365, and Microsoft Copilot 365.
The disruption also hit Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft To Do, Power BI, and Universal Print. Downdetector also identified user issues with Xbox and Amazon, though the extent of those problems remains unclear.
Recovery efforts fail to provide sustained service
Microsoft attempted to restore connectivity on Thursday throughout the day. ET, the company began opening all available pathways after previous actions failed to provide relief.
The company reported positive results from restarting infrastructure at 8:59 p.m.
ET, though these improvements were not sustained. The recovery strategy included isolating infrastructure, restarting components, reintroducing traffic, limiting traffic types, and rebuilding a subset of servers using a previous configuration.
Infrastructure strain identified as primary cause
Microsoft engineers identified the source of the disruption as heightened traffic and strain on a portion of its infrastructure. The company stated the elevated load was not driven by an increase in traffic, but rather by servers being unavailable which strained the remaining infrastructure.
Microsoft implemented steps to prevent additional servers from being impacted by the disruption.
Expert analysis and calls for AI oversight
Cybersecurity expert Leeza Garber described the outage as a "simplistic" problem where too much activity is occurring on a reduced number of available servers, which can cripple a company of Microsoft's scale.
FOX Business correspondent Darren Botelho reported on calls from tech leaders and lawmakers for an AI "emergency brake" or "kill switch".
Real-world consequences and government response
Portland Fire & Rescue in Oregon reported that emails sent to agency employees might experience delayed replies, though emergency crews continued to be dispatched.
As of Thursday, 12 Nov 2026, it was unclear how long the outage would last or how it might affect the workforce.
Partial restoration of Outlook services
Some Microsoft Outlook services began to be restored on 12 Nov 2026 following an hourslong outage. As of 12 Nov 2026, Microsoft reported that there was no fix yet for the global Microsoft 365 outage.
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