Microsoft outage disrupts Outlook and Teams for thousands of US users
Downdetector logged nearly 130,000 Outlook problem reports on Thursday, and Microsoft says it is restarting servers that became unexpectedly unavailable.
A widespread Microsoft outage hit Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services on Thursday, Nov. 12, with many users in the Americas saying they could not send or receive email or had trouble loading their inboxes. The outage tracker Downdetector showed nearly 130,000 reports of Outlook problems just after 1 p.m. ET. Reports later fell from that peak, though many users said problems continued.
Teams and the Copilot AI assistant were also affected. OpenAI and Anthropic said Microsoft 365 connectors they use were affected too. Microsoft said part of its infrastructure had elevated load.
It said the cause was not a rise in traffic but a number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable, which strained the rest. Microsoft said it paused all deployments, moved traffic off the affected infrastructure and began restarting servers. Later it said it had validated an alternative health check method that let a subset of servers return to service, and was applying it more broadly.
It was also weighing whether undoing a small number of recent configuration changes could hasten recovery. Earlier in the day Microsoft said it had restored Teams in North America, though some users kept reporting problems. It later said the issue may affect connectivity for users in any region.
- Almost 130,000users reporting Outlook problems just after 1 p.m. ET, per DowndetectorThe Independent
- more than 140,000outage reports as of 1:30 p.m., per Downdetector via the New York PostNew York Post
- more than 38,000Microsoft 365 problem reports on DowndetectorThe Independent
- roughly 4,500reports of trouble accessing Teams on DowndetectorThe Independent
- 22,323users reporting outages by 12:55 p.m. ET, per UPIUPI
Three sides of the story
26 news outlets reported this
Tap a color or swipe sideways to switch sides.
Liberal11 outlets
Scale of the outage and Microsoft's step-by-step repair
The Independent leads with "Is Outlook down?" and reports thousands of US users hit, with the disruption reaching connectors used by OpenAI and Anthropic. It adds Downdetector counts of more than 38,000 for Microsoft 365 and roughly 4,500 for Teams. ABC News titles its piece "Outlook outage: Microsoft reports 'issues' with Teams and email" and builds it from Microsoft's own posts, noting that around 4 p.m. Microsoft believed its latest fix showed signs of working.
The Guardian calls it a global outage, citing nearly 130,000 reports across Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive, and quotes RMIT University's Mark Gregory describing "a cascading problem" and saying businesses should have backup options. The Boston Globe runs an AP report with Microsoft's "elevated load" explanation and its earlier Teams restoration.
- The Independent: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft and OpenAI
- ABC News: Outlook outage: Microsoft reports 'issues' with Teams and email
- The Guardian: Global Microsoft outage affecting Outlook and Teams users, with company ‘restarting’ servers
- The Boston Globe: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft apps.
Center8 outlets
Downdetector counts and Microsoft's statements on the outage
According to Deutsche Welle, Microsoft says it is working to fix Microsoft 365 outages across the US, following disruption reports from more than 100,000 users. It notes that OpenAI and Anthropic said tools were not working as expected. UPI, in a short dispatch, lists the potentially affected connection methods, including Outlook on the web and Exchange ActiveSync, and gives 22,323 reports by 12:55 p.m. ET and nearly 83,000 for Outlook just before 1 p.m. The Las Vegas Review-Journal runs the AP report, putting reports above 120,000 around 1:30 p.m. ET and saying Microsoft would begin "redistributing" traffic. Forbes headlines that the company says server failures are causing the disruption.
- Deutsche Welle: Microsoft reports mass outages in US, impacting customer accessibility
- UPI: Microsoft reports widespread Outlook outages in United States
- Las Vegas Review-Journal: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft apps
- Forbes: Microsoft 365 Down: Tech Giant Says Server Failures Causing Disruption
Conservative7 outlets
Outlook down nationwide, cause unclear, reliance on cloud
Breitbart News says Outlook is down "throughout the country," with more than 130,000 reports by 1:12 p.m. ET, and says Microsoft's own status page failed to load for some users. It recalls an August 2026 outage that Microsoft blamed on a misconfiguration. The New York Post reports more than 140,000 reports as of 1:30 p.m., says it is not clear what affected the servers, and notes Microsoft's service page buffered for nearly half an hour.
RedState opens on how dependent people are on cloud software. Its writer says Microsoft has not explained why servers became unavailable and that it is too soon to know what happened. Just the News, citing Fox 13, says Exchange Online was primarily affected.
- Breitbart News: Microsoft Outlook Is Down for People Throughout the Country
- New York Post: Microsoft Outlook outage disrupts email for thousands of users
- RedState: Microsoft 365 Goes on the Blink, Leaving Outlook Users in the Lurch
- Just the News: Microsoft 365 disruption impacts Outlook, email services for users nationwide
Which side made the stronger case?
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All sources: 49 articles from 26 outlets
Liberal (20)
- ABC News: Microsoft struggles to restore services as outage hits companies and governments worldwide
- ABC News: Outlook outage: Microsoft reports 'issues' with Teams and email
- Al Jazeera English: You haven’t got mail: Global Microsoft outage disrupts services
- Al Jazeera English: Live: Microsoft struggles to restore services as outage hits global users
- Al Jazeera English: Microsoft hit by global outages: What happened and why?
- Al Jazeera English: Microsoft outage hits tens of thousands of users
- Business Insider: Microsoft's outage is in its 2nd day, and it's affecting Claude. Here's everything we know.
- Business Insider: The Microsoft outage is disrupting email. These business leaders barely use it anyway.
- CBS News: Microsoft battling major worldwide outage
- HuffPost: Microsoft Struggles To Restore Services As Outage Hits Companies And Governments Worldwide
- NBC News: Microsoft email and Teams outages stretch into the night
- NPR: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft email and other apps
- The Boston Globe: Microsoft struggles to restore services as outage hits companies and governments worldwide
- The Boston Globe: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft apps.
- The Guardian: First Thing: Global Microsoft outage chaos as tech firm says there are ‘signs of stabilisation’
- The Guardian: ‘Looks like we’ll have to talk to people’: Australia sent back to time before email with major Microsoft outage
- The Guardian: Global Microsoft outage affecting Outlook and Teams users, with company ‘restarting’ servers
- The Independent: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft and OpenAI
- The Independent: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft and OpenAI
- Yahoo News: Microsoft Outlook and Teams hit by outages as company works to restore service
Center (20)
- BBC News: Watch: How a server outage took down Microsoft Teams and Outlook
- BBC News: What we know about the global Microsoft outage
- BBC News: Watch: How Microsoft services went down around the world
- BBC News: Microsoft users report outages amid tech giant 'connectivity issues'
- Deutsche Welle: Microsoft rules out 'malicious activity' as cause for global outage
- Deutsche Welle: Microsoft works to restore Outlook and Teams after global outage
- Deutsche Welle: Microsoft reports mass outages in US, impacting customer accessibility
- Forbes: Microsoft Outlook, Teams Outage Enters Second Day—Company Reports Progress On Fix
- Forbes: Microsoft 365 Down: Tech Giant Says Server Failures Causing Disruption
- Las Vegas Review-Journal: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft apps
- MarketWatch: Microsoft stock slumps on outage that includes the Copilot tool it has been heavily promoting
- NewsNation: Microsoft Outlook back for 'some users' as outage drags into 2nd day
- NewsNation: Microsoft outage raises concerns over U.S. cybersecurity
- NewsNation: Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft email and other apps
- Newsweek: Microsoft Outage Comes After Pentagon Signed $9.7B Software Deal
- Newsweek: Microsoft's Self-Inflicted Outage Follows Plan to Cut Quarter of Workforce
- Newsweek: Microsoft Outage Hits Global Operations: From Airlines To Visas
- UPI: Microsoft scrambling to fix outage affecting countries around the world
- UPI: Microsoft reports widespread Outlook outages in United States
- UPI: Microsoft reports widespread Outlook outages in United States
Conservative (9)
- Breitbart News: Microsoft Outlook Is Down for People Throughout the Country
- Just the News: Microsoft continues struggle to restore services as outage moves into second day
- Just the News: Microsoft 365 disruption impacts Outlook, email services for users nationwide
- New York Post: Microsoft platforms including Outlook, Teams down as tech giant struggles to fix outage
- New York Post: Microsoft Outlook outage disrupts email for thousands of users
- RedState: Microsoft 365 Goes on the Blink, Leaving Outlook Users in the Lurch
- The Daily Wire: Microsoft Outage Disrupts Email, Workplace Apps
- The Washington Times: Microsoft Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services undergoing outages
- Washington Examiner: Outage hits Microsoft Outlook, impacting more than 120,000 users
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