Microsoft Outage LIVE: Microsoft apologises for outage, says it was not linked to cyber or AI

A widespread outage hit Microsoft platforms, including Outlook, on Thursday (November 12, 2026), with many users encountering trouble using their email accounts and other errors across the tech giant’s suite of apps. Also read | Job cuts, retirement plan, voluntary exits: What’s going on at Microsoft?

Nearly 1,30,000 users on outage tracker Downdetector reported problems accessing Outlook just after 1 pm local time. New reports have since fallen from that peak, but many said they couldn’t send and receive emails or had trouble loading their inboxes altogether.

Thousands also reported issues with Microsoft’s workplace messaging app Teams, as well as its AI assistant Copilot and wider Microsoft 365 services. Microsoft said it was investigating disruptions, notably related to its email and Teams applications.

The story so far: Software giant Microsoft is facing a widespread outage affecting users of its Outlook email service, as well as its other workplace products. Thousands of Microsoft users in India awakened on Friday (November 13, 2026) to find their inboxes inaccessible, losing hours of productivity.

According to DownDetector, over 100,000 users had initially registered complaints about Microsoft Outlook.​Microsoft Outage: Why did Microsoft Outlook and other products go offline globally?Microsoft shared on X on November 13 that a portion of infrastructure was experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, and this could likely be contributing to the connectivity errors.

Microsoft, in a post on X, said it was “deeply sorry” for the disruption and was seeing “broad recovery and stability” across its services. It said the outage was a technical issue “not related to cyber or AI / agents”, introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade and surfaced after a recent network change.

It said services were restored gradually, validating stability at each stage, and promised a full post-incident report once its review is complete. IndiGo said its email support services have been impacted by the Microsoft service disruption.

In a post on X, the country’s largest airline said all other support channels remain available. “Due to a global Microsoft service disruption, our email support services are currently impacted, and we may not be able to receive your emails,” the carrier said.

Microsoft 365 has reported improving service availability and email delivery performance across affected infrastructure, adding that there is no indication that the outage was caused by malicious or cyber activity. The company said its teams are reviewing the incident and working to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

Microsoft says service availability is improving, with email queues significantly reduced and approaching normal levels. However, some users may continue to face intermittent access issues and delayed email delivery as the company restores affected infrastructure and monitors recovery.

Microsoft said it was seeing continued recovery progress across affected regions, with broader improvements in North America and across much of Europe. Microsoft said service availability and email delivery were improving across a growing portion of the affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure, though some users may still face intermittent issues.

It is prioritising reducing the email queue and backlog, and the extended 48-hour email timeout window stays in place to protect delayed messages. An issue affecting Microsoft products worldwide was having a “serious impact” on Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), Rachel Harrison, public services head at the GMB union, said on Friday (November 13, 2026).

Staff receiving emergency calls were “unable to refer patient details in the normal way,” creating “a massive backlog,” though emergency and life-threatening call-outs “appear to be unaffected,” she said. Microsoft ruled out “malicious” activity.

The National Pharmacy Association said the outage was delaying prescriptions by affecting pharmacies’ communication with doctors’ offices.