13 November 2026 (Navroze Bureau) Microsoft is continuing its efforts to resolve a widespread outage affecting its Outlook email service, leaving thousands of users around the world struggling to access their inboxes, send emails and receive messages. The disruption, which began on Thursday, November 12, has also affected several other Microsoft 365 services, raising concerns among businesses, organisations and individual users who depend on the company’s digital platforms for their daily operations.
The outage has caused significant inconvenience, with users reporting difficulties accessing Outlook through both web browsers and mobile applications. Some users have been unable to load their inboxes, while others have experienced errors when attempting to sign in, send messages or retrieve incoming emails.
According to Microsoft’s service updates, the problem is primarily affecting Exchange Online, the cloud-based email platform that powers Outlook for many personal and business users. The company has acknowledged the disruption and said its technical teams are investigating the issue while working on different recovery measures.
Thousands of Users Report Outlook Problems
The disruption quickly attracted widespread attention as users began reporting problems with Microsoft’s email platform. According to outage-tracking website Downdetector, reports of Outlook-related issues reached nearly 130,000 shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday.
Users reported several types of problems, including difficulties accessing their accounts, sending and receiving emails and loading their mailboxes. The disruption affected both individual consumers and organisations that rely on Microsoft services for communication and business operations.
The outage was initially reported across the Americas but later expanded to other regions. Users in different parts of the world also experienced difficulties accessing Microsoft services, indicating that the problem was not limited to a particular country or geographical area.
Microsoft has not provided a confirmed estimate of the total number of affected users. However, the volume of outage reports highlighted the scale of the disruption and the dependence of businesses and individuals on cloud-based communication platforms. AP News+1
Microsoft Identifies Infrastructure Problems
In its service updates, Microsoft said that elevated infrastructure load across multiple regions was contributing to connectivity errors. The company initially focused on redistributing connection traffic across its wider global infrastructure to reduce pressure on affected systems.
Further investigation indicated that the problem was not simply the result of an unexpected increase in overall user traffic. Instead, a large number of servers had become unexpectedly unavailable, shifting additional workloads onto the remaining infrastructure.
This situation created further pressure on the affected systems and contributed to connectivity problems for Outlook users.
Microsoft also identified issues with automated server health checks. These checks are designed to monitor whether servers are functioning properly. When affected servers failed these checks, they became unavailable, reducing the capacity of the email infrastructure.
The company began investigating the components responsible for the failed checks and testing alternative methods to bring affected servers back online.
Although Microsoft has not announced a definitive root cause, its investigation has provided a clearer picture of the technical difficulties behind the disruption. Mail Services+1
Recovery Efforts Face Additional Challenges
Microsoft has introduced several measures to restore normal operations. These include restarting affected servers, redirecting traffic to alternative infrastructure and redistributing connections across its worldwide network.
However, the recovery process has not been straightforward. In one of its updates, Microsoft said that some servers initially returned to service but became unresponsive again after receiving user traffic.
This forced the company to reconsider its recovery strategy and investigate why the affected infrastructure was failing repeatedly.
Microsoft also tested an alternative health-check method on a portion of its infrastructure. The approach initially allowed some servers to return to service successfully, prompting the company to expand the testing process.
The company has additionally introduced protective traffic-management measures to reduce the workload on affected systems. It is also temporarily restricting certain types of traffic in specific locations to identify whether particular requests are contributing to the problem.
In its latest update, Microsoft said that the changes introduced to improve service stability were not delivering the expected results. The company is therefore exploring alternative approaches to increase infrastructure capacity and restore affected services.
The technical teams are also rebuilding some affected servers using an earlier software configuration to determine whether this can prevent them from becoming unresponsive. Mail Services+1
Other Microsoft Services Also Affected
The disruption has extended beyond Outlook, affecting several other services within Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Users have reported difficulties accessing Microsoft Teams, Copilot, SharePoint, OneDrive and other Microsoft 365 applications. These services are widely used by businesses, educational institutions and government organisations for communication, collaboration, file storage and productivity.
Microsoft Teams users have experienced connectivity problems, while some customers have reported difficulties accessing files and online applications.
The disruption has highlighted how closely connected Microsoft’s cloud-based services are. When problems occur within shared infrastructure, multiple applications can experience interruptions at the same time.
For businesses that depend on Microsoft 365, the outage has created challenges in managing meetings, exchanging important documents and maintaining regular communication with employees and customers.
Some organisations may also face delays in their daily operations because employees cannot access essential emails or online workspaces.
Microsoft has been working to restore individual services while monitoring the overall performance of its infrastructure. Although some improvements have been observed in certain regions, the company has cautioned that recovery may take time.