A global Microsoft 365 outage on Thursday, 12 November 2026, lasted more than 10 hours and left users struggling to access email, work files and productivity tools, Inc42 reported on 13 November. Indian users were also affected, according to Downdetector figures cited in the report.
When the report was published, recovery was still ongoing and Microsoft had not confirmed full restoration.
What Caused the Microsoft 365 Outage?
Microsoft first attributed the disruption to elevated load across infrastructure in multiple regions. It later said the load was not caused by more traffic: “the elevated load isn’t driven by an increase in traffic, but by a number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable.”
Microsoft said it first tested a configuration change for servers failing automated health checks, but recovery efforts did not provide the expected relief. A core process on affected servers became overwhelmed, causing a loss of capacity, and some servers became unresponsive again when they received traffic.
Microsoft paused all deployments, redirected traffic, temporarily restricted certain traffic types, adjusted network protocols and applied traffic-blocking measures. These steps brought partial recovery in some regions but not sustained restoration. The company pointed users to incident MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center and to status.cloud.microsoft.
Which Services Were Affected?
- Outlook on web, desktop and mobile, with delayed email delivery and connectivity issues
- Microsoft Copilot, including Copilot Chat and its access to emails, calendars and files
- Teams calendars, meeting scheduling and chat creation for organisations using Information Barriers (core messaging and online meetings largely worked)
- Recently used files and some Microsoft 365 admin center pages
- Planner, To Do, Defender, Purview, Graph, Fabric, Power BI, SharePoint Online, Universal Print and Windows 365
What It Means for Indian Businesses
Downdetector reports in India peaked at 2,162 around 11:44 PM on Thursday and climbed again to 2,254 around 8:59 AM, according to the report. Globally, there were more than 38,000 Microsoft 365 problem reports and around 4,500 Microsoft Teams reports at about 2:07 PM ET on Thursday.
Companies that run email, calendars and documents on Microsoft 365 were exposed to the same disruption at the same time, since many of the affected services depend on Exchange Online. Microsoft had also reported an earlier Azure outage in October 2026.
Industry Reaction and Expert Commentary
OpenAI said it was investigating an issue with its Microsoft connectors. Anthropic reported an issue with an upstream provider affecting its Microsoft 365 connector. The report did not include comments from Indian enterprises or analysts on this outage.
What Happens Next?
Microsoft said it was pursuing multiple workstreams to restore service. Users can follow incident MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center and the status page at status.cloud.microsoft for updates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did the Microsoft 365 outage last?
The outage on Thursday, 12 November 2026, lasted more than 10 hours, according to Inc42.
What caused the Microsoft 365 outage?
Microsoft said elevated load was driven by a number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable, not by an increase in traffic.
Where can users track the incident?
Microsoft pointed users to incident MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center and to status.cloud.microsoft.
Source: Inc42 (Shrishti Bisht), 13 November 2026.
Leave a comment