Microsoft Apologizes for Global Outage, Blames an Issue From an Earlier Network Capacity Upgrade, and Gives No Time for Full Recovery
Microsoft on the afternoon of November 13 publicly apologized for the global Microsoft 365 outage that began on November 12 and lasted more than 24 hours. In a social media post at 1:05 p.m. Eastern, the company said it was "deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," that it had addressed the underlying issue, and that it was continuing to restore service to the remaining customers and regions.
Microsoft also gave a preliminary cause: this was a technical issue, not related to a cyberattack or to super intelligence (SI) agents; the incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. The company said it would share a full post-incident report, including the root cause and defense-in-depth actions, once its review is complete.
On recovery, Microsoft said that given the scale of demand it restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage, which took longer but helped ensure a stable restoration. Its service health page showed services including Microsoft 365 and Outlook as "operational" around 3 p.m. Eastern. The company also noted that as infrastructure stabilizes it is still draining queued messages and rebalancing traffic, so sign-in and access may recover while delivery and processing continue to catch up, and it does not yet have an estimated time for full recovery.
Outage reports also fell sharply: Downdetector received about 1,600 Outlook problem reports at 2:50 p.m. Eastern and about 700 for Microsoft 365, down from about 130,000 Outlook reports and nearly 50,000 Microsoft 365 reports when the outage began on November 12. The outage has affected services including Outlook and Teams since November 12, and GSM has been following it continuously.
Related: Microsoft 365 Outage Enters a Second Day
(Source: Microsoft)
Source: Microsoft
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：微软位于华盛顿州 Redmond 的总部西园区航拍。Jelson25 摄，公共领域，Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Aerial view of the West Campus of Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Photo by Jelson25, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
- 2026-11-12Nationwide Microsoft Outage Disrupts City Services in Two Southern California Cities: Culver City Hall Slowed, Rancho Palos Verdes Email Down
- 2026-11-12Follow-Up: Microsoft 365 Outage Continues Worldwide; Outlook, Teams and Other Services Disrupted, Some Servers Back in Service
- 2026-11-12Microsoft Outage Becomes an 'Adult Snow Day' Online: Outlook Reports Top 130,000 as Workers Joke About the Break
- 2026-11-13Follow-up: Microsoft 365 Outage Enters a Second Day as Capacity Stays Below Baseline and Email Timeout Is Extended to 48 Hours
- 2026-11-13Microsoft Apologizes for Global Outage, Blames an Issue From an Earlier Network Capacity Upgrade, and Gives No Time for Full RecoveryThis story
Silicon Carbide Nanomaterials in Disc Brake Pads: 0.5% Loading Raised Average Brake Force by Up to 19%, With Fade Resistance Up to 130°C2026-11-14
PEBA-PEMA Blend Membrane Separates 1-Butanol With Flux of 0.19 kg/m2/h and Separation Factor of 15.5 at 5 Percent PEMA, Published in Scientific Reports on November 132026-11-14