When will Microsoft Outlook and Teams be fixed? Latest on the global service outage
BERLIN, GERMANY - APRIL 22: The logo of the software Microsoft Outlook is shown on the display of a smartphone on April 22, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
NEW YORK - Millions of workers logging on for the day are facing digital roadblocks as a massive global Microsoft outage continues to disrupt access to Outlook, Teams and Copilot.
Potential return timeline
What we know:
There is currently no confirmed, universal restoration time for Microsoft Outlook or Exchange Online.
As the outage stretched beyond the 12-hour mark, Microsoft reported "early signs of stabilization" early Friday after implementing software patches and targeted configuration updates. However, the company cautioned that service capacity has not yet returned to normal levels and performance remains variable as traffic is carefully reintroduced to the network.
The backstory:
The disruption began around 11:15 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 12, when an overwhelmed core process caused servers to crash and drop out of rotation, triggering a cascading capacity failure.
At the peak of the disruption, outage tracker Downdetector recorded more than 130,000 problem reports from users unable to load their inboxes or send messages.
Microsoft Outlook problems reported in the last 24 hours, as of 6:36 a.m. Friday. (Photo: Downdetector)
Microsoft confirmed that it has found no indication of malicious activity or a cyberattack, stating that the issue is strictly tied to server infrastructure.
Who is impacted
What they're saying:
The outage is affecting Microsoft 365 enterprise and personal users worldwide. Beyond everyday office workers, the disruption has hit government ministries and agencies across the United States, Japan and Australia.
In the United Kingdom, hospitals reported that email services were knocked offline, though medical procedures continued as planned. Trading firms, airlines and emergency services have also reported widespread communications delays stemming from the outage.
What we don't know:
Microsoft has not provided an estimated timeline for when Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services will return to full capacity. Because engineers are gradually reintroducing traffic region by region to prevent restarted servers from crashing again under heavy morning demand, it remains unclear when individual users and workplaces will see consistent service.
The company has also not yet detailed the exact technical trigger that initially overwhelmed its core process on Thursday. Microsoft said it will publish a full post-incident report outlining the root cause once recovery efforts are complete.
Additionally, Microsoft has not disclosed the total number of people, businesses or government agencies affected globally, and it is unclear how long backlogged emails will take to arrive after the company extended its email timeout window to 48 hours.
The Source: This article was written using reporting from CBS News, Insurance Journal, Mashable, and official Microsoft service updates.