Microsoft Cloud Outage Disrupts Outlook, Teams and Copilot for Hours; Resolution Attempts Fail
A severe multi-hour disruption hit Microsoft's core cloud services, impacting global users as repeated repair efforts failed to stabilize the system.
US technology giant Microsoft experienced a severe multi-hour outage of its cloud service platform on November 13, 2026, rendering email service Outlook, collaboration platform Teams, and AI assistant Copilot unusable. The disruption affected a large number of businesses and consumers who rely on these tools for daily operations and data exchange.
According to German tech outlet t3n, Microsoft posted updates about the interruption on the online platform X. Initially reported as issues with Exchange mailboxes in the US, Microsoft subsequently stated that the disruption could affect Microsoft 365 cloud users worldwide. The company attempted to route data traffic around potentially problematic servers but achieved no breakthrough success initially.
Microsoft engineers identified a process on affected servers that paralyzed them and attempted to bring some servers back online. Although there were brief reports of stability, the situation deteriorated an hour later: servers hung again as soon as data traffic reached them. Microsoft then tried to start up parts of the infrastructure in isolation, seeing "positive results" briefly before admitting the measures did not work as expected. As of the report, the duration of the ongoing disruption remained unclear.
This is not Microsoft's first major service interruption recently. In late August 2026, its email services suffered a hours-long widespread outage due to a problem in the cloud infrastructure, preventing users from logging in or sending and receiving messages. Such incidents highlight the vulnerability of major cloud providers when dealing with complex infrastructure failures and the operational risks posed to enterprise customers heavily dependent on a single cloud platform.