Global Microsoft service outage disrupts software applications and affects users across multiple countries

A global Microsoft service outage disrupted various software applications and affected users across multiple countries starting around noon Eastern Time on Thursday, November 12, 2026. The disruption, which impacted essential tools such as Outlook, Teams, and Copilot, lasted for more than 12 hours and extended into Friday, November 13, 2026. According to Downdetector, user issues were reported in 74 countries and regions within one hour of the outage beginning.

Cause of the disruption

Microsoft confirmed that the outage was not caused by malicious activity or a cyberattack. Instead, the company identified that a core operation on affected servers was experiencing load exceeding its capacity. This unexpected server failure increased pressure on the remaining infrastructure, leading to the widespread service interruption. Microsoft stated that the company is working to safely return services to operation and is testing configuration changes.

The company noted that the situation is somewhat similar to the CrowdStrike incident involving an update error. While the technical failure caused significant issues, Microsoft stated they are not aware of any malicious activity causing the incident. To mitigate the impact of delayed communications, Microsoft extended the expiration deadline for delayed emails to 48 hours to prevent data loss.

Impact on global sectors

The outage affected various sectors, including education, healthcare, and government services in multiple countries. In Australia, the disruption interrupted online classes and live feeds from courts on Friday. The scale of the technical failure was evident through user reports; Downdetector reported that approximately 130,000 Outlook reports occurred shortly after 1pm ET, with the peak number of reports reaching 138,058 at 18:00 GMT on Thursday. At the peak of the outage, there were approximately 19,650 reports per minute across five services.

The disruption also had financial and corporate consequences. Microsoft's stock price decreased by 0.4% in after-hours trading. The Workhorse Group postponed its third-quarter financial results from November 12 to November 16 due to the disruption. Additionally, PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, announced it would reduce its global workforce by approximately 4%.

Glossary

• Teams — Teams are groups of participants that compete against each other in various stages of a competition. In the Grand Finals, teams compete to become champions by reaching a target point mark and winning subsequent games.
• Copilot — Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft AI. It utilizes the Microsoft Prometheus large language model and features a conversational interface style similar to ChatGPT.