Microsoft Restores Outlook and Teams After 36-Hour Global Outage

Microsoft resolved a major global outage lasting over 36 hours, restoring services including Outlook, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 tools. The disruption, which began on November 12, affected users across several countries and crippled workplace communications for businesses, government agencies, and schools. The outage centered on Exchange Online, Microsoft's cloud-based email infrastructure, and also impacted Microsoft 365 Copilot and SharePoint Online. Microsoft traced the incident to an issue introduced during an earlier network capacity upgrade, which surfaced after a recent network change, and engineering teams worked to restore server capacity and redirect traffic. Microsoft ruled out cyberattack or artificial intelligence as causes, apologizing to customers for the disruption. Some organizations resorted to alternative communication methods like phone calls and fax, while users faced delays in receiving emails and accessing work-related information.