Microsoft 365 Outage Hits Outlook, Teams and Copilot
By Christine James, Editor · November 12, 2026
3%Microsoft holds 3% of the Software Hate Index, #7 on the board, down 4 this week. Live, updates as buyers report.
Developing story. Last updated Nov 12, 2026, about 2 p.m. Central. Microsoft has not yet said the outage is over.
A large Microsoft 365 outage on Thursday locked business and consumer users out of Outlook, and also took down Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive and Copilot. Microsoft said a large number of its servers went unexpectedly offline, straining the rest of its systems.
For a company running email, chat and file sharing on one vendor, that meant most of the workday stopped at once. It is the second major Microsoft 365 outage since September, according to TechCrunch.
Key facts
- The outage began on Thursday, Nov 12, 2026, first in the Americas, then in any region, per Microsoft's updates.
- Outlook and Exchange Online were hit hardest. Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Office for the web, Copilot and Defender XDR were also affected.
- More than 130,000 Outlook problem reports were logged on Downdetector by about 1:15 p.m. ET.
- Microsoft blamed "a large number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable" and has not said why.
- Microsoft paused all deployments and configuration changes and is testing a configuration fix.
- Microsoft's last major Microsoft 365 outage was in September, a days-long login problem.
What Happened
Microsoft first reported problems reaching Exchange Online mailboxes "through multiple connection methods in the Americas," according to the Associated Press. It later said part of its infrastructure was under "elevated load" and that it was moving connection traffic to other regions to balance it.
By about 1:30 p.m. ET, more than 120,000 people had reported Outlook problems on Downdetector, rising past 130,000, with about 46,000 reports for Microsoft 365 overall and about 3,000 for Teams, Euronews reported. Microsoft's own admin status page was slow or unreachable for part of the outage, so the company posted updates on social media instead.
In later updates, Microsoft said it was restarting affected servers, had paused all deployments and was testing "a configuration change to address a problem that's causing servers to fail automated health checks," per iTnews. Users in Australia woke to the same errors, so the effect was global.
What We Don't Know
- Why the servers went offline. Microsoft has not given a cause.
- When every service will be fully back.
- Whether any email was lost or only delayed. Reports so far describe delays and failed logins.
This was an outage, not a breach. Nothing reported so far suggests customer data was taken. We will update this page if that changes, and our Software Breach Tracker covers incidents where data was exposed.
What Should Teams Do Now?
Write down the hours
Note when your team lost email and Teams, and when it came back. You'll need this for any service credit claim.
Read your service terms
Microsoft 365 business plans promise 99.9% monthly uptime. Credits are not automatic. An admin has to file a claim, usually within two months.
Keep a backup channel
If email and chat share one vendor, one outage stops both. A phone tree or a second chat tool for urgent work costs little.
Check security alerts after
Defender XDR was affected. Once service is back, look for alerts that queued or were missed during the outage.
Does One Vendor for Everything Still Make Sense?
Bundles are cheaper and simpler, which is why most teams buy them. The trade-off shows on days like this: one vendor's bad afternoon becomes everyone's. That doesn't mean leaving Microsoft. It means knowing which work would stop, and having a plan for it.
It also lands weeks after Microsoft announced Microsoft 365 price increases for July 2026, with Business Basic going from $6 to $7 a user a month. Teams reviewing that renewal can weigh reliability alongside price. Compare options and what buyers report on the Microsoft company page.
Sources
Microsoft on HissingKitty
$3,600 /yr
Median of 7 teams
1.7
3 ratings
13
Alternatives listed
Built Something Like This?
List it free, or tell other teams what you pay today.
