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Microsoft outage hits second day as company reports recovery progress

Outlook, Teams and Copilot problems disrupted governments, police and hospitals in several countries, and Microsoft says it has no evidence of malicious activity.

Aerial view of the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, in 2021
Aerial view of the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, in 2021. Photo: Atomic Taco, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
22 news outlets reported this
Liberal10 outletsWorldwide disruption to governments, health services and businessesCenter5 outletsRecovery progress and how far the outage reachedConservative7 outletsUnknown cause, no sign of cyberattack, recovery updates
ABRAnews EditorialPublished 1 min readMoney and daily life
Overview

A Microsoft 365 outage hit Outlook, Teams and the Copilot AI assistant starting Thursday and ran into Friday, Nov. 13. Downdetector, an outage tracker, logged reports from 74 countries and territories within about an hour. On Friday Microsoft said it was seeing "encouraging recovery progress" but some users may still face intermittent issues.

The company said it has no evidence of malicious activity. It also said affected infrastructure was under elevated load, which was likely contributing to connectivity errors. Tony Burke, Australia's Home Affairs Minister, said Microsoft does not think it is under cyberattack and draws parallels with the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, a failure rooted in a defective patch.

In Britain, police forces said they could not receive crime reports online, and the National Pharmacy Association warned of possible prescription delays because NHS email was affected. In the US, Baltimore County, Austin and Jacksonville reported email problems. Indian airline IndiGo reported disruption to its customer email support, and said its flights were unaffected.

In January, Microsoft said it had more than 450 million paid commercial subscriptions to Microsoft 365. How many people were affected is not clear.

Key figures
  • 74 countries and territoriesplaces with outage reports to Downdetector within about an hourLas Vegas Review-Journal
  • more than 130,000Outlook users reporting problems at the Thursday peak, per DowndetectorWashington Examiner
  • more than 450 millionpaid Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions, Microsoft's January figureLas Vegas Review-Journal
  • 48 hourstime Outlook now waits for a delayed email, per MicrosoftUPI

Three sides of the story

10Liberal5Center7Conservative

22 news outlets reported this

Tap a color or swipe sideways to switch sides.

Liberal10 outlets

Worldwide disruption to governments, health services and businesses

Time leads with the outage stretching into a second day and leaving businesses and governments "struggling to access email communications." It details Baltimore County staff unable to send or receive emails while 911 stayed up, NHS patients told to phone, and Indian airlines and Australian agencies affected. Australia's Tony Burke says Microsoft sees similarities to the 2024 CrowdStrike failure, "an update that has gone awry."

MS NOW runs an AP report from Hong Kong describing the outage's reach from Asia to the US, quoting Danny Lau, who runs a Hong Kong aluminum firm, and noting a Microsoft post that changes were "not taking as expected." The Guardian opens on millions unable to reach email, Teams chats or meetings, and lists the US House of Representatives, an Australian spy agency and Indian airlines among those reporting problems. It says experts see a "dangerous dependence" of countries like the UK on a few US tech companies.

The Boston Globe instead collects online memes and quips mocking office lingo, including "Your email does not find me well."

Center5 outlets

Recovery progress and how far the outage reached

The Las Vegas Review-Journal opens on Microsoft fixing a "massive global outage" that dragged into a second day, "disrupting everything from emails to police emergency calls and AI tools." It adds Microsoft's Friday notes of "continued recovery progress," lighter items such as Royal Mail's "No Inbox, No Problem" post, and two University of St. Andrews academics, Stephen McQuiston and Steven Watt, on shared infrastructure and reliance on a single supplier. UPI leads with the spread to "more than 70 countries," reports Microsoft blaming "elevated load" on its infrastructure, and says Outlook now waits 48 hours for delayed email.

It cites the NHS Alliance, which said clinical services were not affected while ambulances and 999 emergency call centers were badly disrupted, plus a parliamentary spokesperson. The Hill reports Microsoft saying it is "seeing encouraging recovery progress" and that some users may still have intermittent issues.

Conservative7 outlets

Unknown cause, no sign of cyberattack, recovery updates

The New York Post calls it "one of the biggest service outages in recent history" with little known about the source. It quotes Darren Bruce, whom it calls Microsoft's independent adviser, on "elevated load," and Ciaran Martin, former head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, who told NBC News it "looks like being one of the biggest outages of all time." It also reports Microsoft's buyouts offered to over a quarter of its workforce, 60,000 employees, and says people on social media pointed to staff cuts as a possible cause.

The Washington Examiner headlines Microsoft's statement of "no evidence of malicious activity," says the reason "remains unclear," calls the effects "catastrophic," and cites executive Charles Lamanna and a Colorado sheriff's office unable to process online bond payments. Just the News says Microsoft "continues struggle to restore services," relays the company's 6 a.m. ET update and its 430 million users, and says the outage isn't believed to be a cyberattack.

What a side did not mention
  • Centrist outlets did not mentionAustralia's Tony Burke said Microsoft likens the outage to the 2024 CrowdStrike faulty-update failure Reported by Time, MS NOW
  • Conservative outlets did not mentionAustralia's Tony Burke said Microsoft likens the outage to the 2024 CrowdStrike faulty-update failure Reported by Time, MS NOW
  • Liberal outlets did not mentionMicrosoft said affected infrastructure was under elevated load Reported by UPI, New York Post
Where outlets disagree
Money and daily life

In the US, Baltimore County said its staff could not send or receive emails but that 911 and other essential county services were not affected. The Washington Examiner reports the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office in Colorado could not process online bond payments while Outlook was down. Microsoft said some users may still see intermittent issues or delayed email, and UPI reports Outlook now waits 48 hours for delayed messages.

All sources: 34 articles from 22 outlets

Liberal (14)

Center (9)

Conservative (11)