Microsoft Struggles to Restore Services Even After 12-Hour Global Outage Hits Millions

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 13: Microsoft has reported progress in restoring its services following a widespread global outage that disrupted access to Outlook, Microsoft 365, Teams and other products for more than 12 hours, leaving millions of users facing connectivity and access problems.

The company said it had achieved “marginal success” after applying software patches and rebooting infrastructure as part of its recovery efforts.

In an update published on its Service Health Status page early Friday, Microsoft said it was continuing to monitor activity across different regions, assess server performance and implement measures to improve system capacity.

The company subsequently reported further improvements, saying its latest traffic optimization measures had produced positive results in stabilizing services and increasing capacity.

“Recovery efforts are ongoing across impacted infrastructure. We are seeing early signs of stabilization, but service capacity has not yet returned to normal levels and health remains variable as traffic is carefully reintroduced,” Microsoft said.

The latest developments offered some relief after earlier recovery attempts failed to deliver the expected results, prolonging disruptions for users across multiple regions.

Microsoft had previously identified unexpectedly unavailable servers as the main factor behind the outage. The problem placed additional pressure on the remaining operational infrastructure, affecting the company's ability to handle user traffic.

The disruption particularly affected Exchange Online mailboxes, while users also experienced difficulties accessing Outlook, Microsoft 365 and Teams.

The scale of the disruption was reflected in outage reports recorded by Downdetector in the United States, where complaints exceeded:

Microsoft said it was not aware of any malicious activity connected to the incident, but stressed that restoring normal services remained a priority.

The company also pledged to release a detailed post-incident report after the disruption is fully resolved. The report is expected to explain the root cause of the outage and outline measures to strengthen infrastructure resilience and prevent similar incidents.