A global Microsoft outage has disrupted businesses and public institutions across 74 countries and territories, leaving millions of users struggling to access essential digital services for more than 12 hours.
The disruption, which started on November 12, affected Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Copilot, SharePoint, OneDrive and other Microsoft 365 services. Banks, government agencies, courts and airlines were among the organisations reporting operational difficulties.
Microsoft initially reported connectivity problems in the Americas before confirming that users in other regions could also be affected. Outage-tracking platform Downdetector recorded reports from 74 countries and territories within approximately an hour of the incident.
What caused the Microsoft outage?
Microsoft attributed the disruption to infrastructure problems that affected servers across multiple regions.
The company said parts of its infrastructure were experiencing elevated loads, contributing to connectivity errors. It also discovered that several servers had unexpectedly become unavailable, forcing the remaining infrastructure to handle additional workloads.
Microsoft paused deployments, redirected traffic away from affected infrastructure and restarted some servers in an attempt to restore services.
However, its initial recovery efforts produced limited results, with some restored servers experiencing further problems.
Microsoft has not established a definitive root cause but said there was no indication that the outage resulted from malicious activity or a cyberattack.
Banks, governments and courts affected
The disruption extended beyond individual users and workplace communications, affecting organisations that depend on Microsoft’s services to manage daily operations.
In Australia, government departments, the Australian Taxation Office, federal police and the country’s intelligence agency experienced disruptions.
Japan also reported problems with government IT infrastructure, while Singapore recorded widespread reports of Microsoft service disruptions.
In the Philippines, the Supreme Court experienced communication difficulties. Financial institutions in Taiwan also faced operational problems, with some firms struggling to manage transactions and confirm trades.
Airlines, including India’s IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India, reported disruptions to their email support services.
In Europe, companies also experienced difficulties communicating with customers and publishing financial results. Some organisations had to rely on alternative communication channels, including fax, to complete time-sensitive business operations.
The outage also affected technology companies. OpenAI and Anthropic reported problems with their Microsoft 365 connectors, which affected connections to external tools and services.
Microsoft reports progress but full recovery remains uncertain
Microsoft said its engineers were working to restore affected services through infrastructure restarts, software patches and traffic optimisation. In an update on November 13, the company reported early signs of improved service stability and increased capacity following its latest traffic management measures.
However, the improvements did not immediately translate into a complete recovery across all affected regions. Microsoft has not provided a confirmed timeline for restoring every affected service.
The incident highlights the dependence of businesses, financial institutions and government agencies on a relatively small number of major cloud and productivity service providers.
For organisations that rely heavily on Microsoft’s ecosystem, the outage also raises questions about backup systems, alternative communication channels and how quickly essential operations can continue when a major technology provider experiences a widespread failure.
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