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Microsoft Outage Hits Outlook, Teams and Copilot, Nearly 83,000 Reports

By Outages Now Editors

Person using a laptop to read an email indoors beside a potted plant.
Photo: RDNE Stock project / Pexels

A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted Outlook, Teams, Copilot and OneDrive on Thursday, Nov. 12, with Downdetector user reports for Outlook reaching nearly 83,000 by 1 p.m., according to ZDNET. Microsoft said some of its servers had become unexpectedly unavailable, which strained the infrastructure still running.

Microsoft first said it was investigating, then announced a fix, but users reported problems well after that announcement. ZDNET called the situation a developing story.

How the day unfolded

  • Morning: Multiple people began reporting trouble with Outlook, Teams and Copilot, per Downdetector.
  • 10:40 a.m. ET: Microsoft said on X that it was looking into the issue.
  • 12 p.m. ET: Microsoft posted that the problem was resolved.
  • 1 p.m.: Outlook outage reports stood near 83,000.
  • 1:43 p.m. ET: Commenters on Microsoft’s post still reported problems across Teams, Outlook and OneDrive.
  • 2:31 p.m.: Microsoft posted another update.
  • 2:38 p.m.: Outlook reports had eased to just under 75,000.

By the time of ZDNET’s latest count, Teams reports were below 26,000 and Copilot reports were under 2,000.

What Microsoft says caused it

Microsoft said the extra load on its systems did not come from a rise in traffic. In its words, a number of servers were “unexpectedly unavailable,” which strained the remaining infrastructure. The company said it was restarting affected servers and working to return them to service safely. It also said it had paused all deployments for now.

Microsoft pointed administrators to incident numbers EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, and to its public status site if the admin center cannot be reached.

Why the status page mattered

Microsoft’s own service status page appeared to be down for part of the day. As of 2:21 p.m., ZDNET said, it still did not appear to load, and the outlet was able to open it at 3:05 p.m.

What it means for users

One person at a law firm that uses Outlook told ZDNET that as of 2 p.m. ET she could neither send nor receive mail. Inbox search still worked for her, and she could search and open messages. Her email last seemed to work at 12:44 p.m., about 40 minutes after Microsoft said the problem was fixed. Her firm told her the outage was global.

For anyone affected, checking Microsoft service health before troubleshooting Outlook is the first step the site covers. The cause here sits on Microsoft’s side rather than on a user’s device.

What to watch next

Microsoft has not given a final all-clear in the information available. Further updates are expected in its admin center and on X.

Source: ZDNET

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