Microsoft reports progress in resolving the global Microsoft 365 outage. The situation is improving, particularly in North America and Europe, and recovery is also evident in the Asia-Pacific region. However, users may still experience access issues and email delays.
Microsoft reported this in a new status update. The company cites broader improvements in North America, ongoing recovery across much of Europe, and “encouraging recovery signals” in the Asia-Pacific region. The outage has not yet been fully resolved. Some users are still experiencing access issues or delayed email delivery because mitigation efforts are still underway on part of the infrastructure.
The issues began on the evening of Thursday, November 12, and were still affecting users in dozens of countries today. Outlook and Exchange Online were particularly affected, but the outage also impacted Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Copilot. Users couldn’t log in, send or receive emails, and, in some cases, open their calendars.
Servers went down unexpectedly
According to Microsoft, many servers unexpectedly became unavailable. This placed additional strain on the remaining infrastructure. On those servers, a core process became overloaded, resulting in high processor usage and issues with secure connections. The servers subsequently failed automated health checks and were taken offline. Microsoft is investigating whether a recent change to the component responsible for those checks contributed. There are no indications of a cyberattack at this time.
The recovery process was initially unstable. Servers that came back online were immediately subjected to heavy loads. Microsoft is therefore restarting and repairing affected systems, testing configuration changes, and bringing infrastructure back online in phases.
The focus is now on stabilizing the restored infrastructure and completing mitigation efforts in the remaining affected areas. In addition, Microsoft aims to clear the backlog of delayed emails. The company is also verifying that the service operates consistently across the various connection methods. Microsoft has not yet provided a definitive timeline for full recovery.
Tip: Global Microsoft 365 outage lasts 12 hours with logins unavailable