Microsoft has reported progress in restoring services affected by a major global outage, with some users beginning to receive emails again as disruptions to Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 applications continue across several regions.

In its latest outage update, Microsoft confirmed continued improvements in service availability, noting that email queues has “significantly reduced and approaching normal levels.“

“We’re seeing continued recovery progress across affected regions, with broader improvements now observed in North America and sustained improvements across much of Europe.

“We’re also seeing encouraging recovery signals in Asia Pacific, although some users may continue to experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as mitigation progresses across the remaining affected infrastructure.”
Microsoft

Recovery Remains Uneven Across Regions

The latest update follows an outage that began November 12, affecting Microsoft 365 services used by businesses, government institutions and individuals worldwide.

Although some users have regained access to their email accounts, others continue to experience intermittent connectivity problems.

Microsoft has also indicated that some services remain impaired even as recovery measures take effect.

The scale of the disruption has been reflected in reports submitted to Down Detector, where more than 140,000 users across 74 countries reported Outlook-related problems. The actual number of affected customers is expected to be higher, as the platform relies largely on voluntary user reports.

The outage has also extended to other technology providers that depend on Microsoft’s infrastructure. OpenAI reported problems with its Microsoft connectors, affecting some tools, while Anthropic experienced disruptions to its Microsoft 365 integrations, including mail, calendar and search functions.

Microsoft has maintained that its immediate priority is to stabilise recovered infrastructure, complete mitigation in remaining affected areas and restore consistent service across different connection methods.

Public Services and Businesses Face Disruptions

Moreover, the outage has also affected organisations that rely on Microsoft’s cloud-based services for communication and service delivery, disrupting operations beyond individual users.

In the United Kingdom, GP surgeries, pharmacies, police forces and schools have reported difficulties linked to the disruption.

NHS England also indicated that some staff had resorted to paper records or alternative information systems.

UK Government Spokesperson noted, ““we’re working with departments and with Microsoft to establish the full picture, and where services are disrupted, departments have contingency arrangements in place.”

“You’ll obviously appreciate this is an ongoing situation, but in the meantime, people are encouraged to follow advice on the services they require for alternative ways to get in touch.”
UK Government Spokesperson

In Australia, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry reported a broad disruption to its messaging services, leaving some clients unable to send or receive departmental emails. Service NSW also experienced interruptions to selected service-centre and call-centre transactions.

The effects have extended to financial markets and transport services, with Euronext advising listed companies to communicate by telephone and National Rail warning passengers that emailed tickets might not be accessible.

Microsoft Rules Out Cyberattack as Cause

Meanwhile, Microsoft has attributed the outage to elevated demand on its infrastructure after a number of servers became unexpectedly unavailable, directing additional traffic to the remaining systems and placing them under pressure.

The company has also explained that a process responsible for establishing secure connections on affected servers became overwhelmed, preventing those systems from processing requests effectively.

According to Forrester’s Principal Analyst Dario Maisto, “The Microsoft outage, for the little we know so far, represents the perfect quasi-natural experiment for stress testing an organization’s – and even an entire continent – digital sovereignty posture.”

“Although this outage does not strictly pose a sovereignty question, as this seems to be more an accident than the consequence of a government’s will, it does allow us to test what would happen if interruption of mailing services and AI tools like Copilot would be the direct consequence of a political act from the government.”
Dario Maisto

While the exact cause remains unconfirmed, Microsoft reported that it had started reverting a recent network configuration change linked to the beginning of the outage

The company has also ruled out malicious activity as the cause of the incident, stating: “As of now, we are not aware of any malicious activity that is causing this incident. We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution.”

Microsoft has indicated that it will publish a Post-Incident Report detailing the root cause of the outage, the corrective measures taken and additional steps intended to prevent similar disruptions.

Until then, the company continues to monitor service performance and restore affected infrastructure, with some users still facing intermittent access problems and delayed email delivery.