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Microsoft outage drags on for hours, disrupting Outlook, Teams for businesses and governments

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Reuters. (2026, November 13). Microsoft outage drags on for hours, disrupting Outlook, Teams for businesses and governments. Dawn. https://www.dawn.com/news/2044258/microsoft-outage-drags-on-for-hours-disrupting-outlook-teams-for-businesses-and-governments

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Dawn · collected 2026-11-13 · by Reuters

Quick Summary

Microsoft services including Outlook and Teams experienced a global outage lasting approximately 10 hours on Friday, affecting government agencies and businesses across the US, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region. Downdetector tracked over 130,000 reports of Outlook problems in the US at its peak, while Microsoft acknowledged that issues with unexpectedly unavailable servers caused sustained traffic management imbalances. The report highlights the widespread operational impact on organizations like the US House of Representatives and Australia's spy agency, noting that Microsoft attributed the disruption to an update error rather than a cyberattack.
Written by AI on 2026-11-13, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).
See how they differ ↓

How they differ

24 outlets covered “Microsoft outage”.

What each outlet says

One AI summary per outlet of its latest article on this story, written from that article alone and checked against it. Open the article for the outlet's own words.

DawnThis outlet13 Nov

Microsoft services including Outlook and Teams experienced a global outage lasting approximately 10 hours on Friday, affecting government agencies and businesses across the US, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region. Downdetector tracked over 130,000 reports of Outlook problems in the US at its peak, while Microsoft acknowledged that issues with unexpectedly unavailable servers caused sustained traffic management…

Microsoft outage drags on for hours, disrupting Outlook, Teams for businesses and governments (this article)2 articles from Dawn on this story
ABC News (AU)13 Nov

This analysis explores how a global Microsoft software outage disrupted essential services like Outlook, Teams, and Authenticator for Australian businesses, government agencies, and schools. While Microsoft reported a gradual recovery starting after 9am AEST, the company struggled to find a long-term fix as servers became overwhelmed by secure connection processes. The piece highlights the vulnerability of…

How the Microsoft outage is affecting Australians →5 articles from ABC News (AU) on this story
Daily Mail13 Nov

Microsoft is struggling to resolve a massive global outage affecting platforms like Outlook, Teams, and Copilot across at least 74 countries starting around 6pm GMT on Thursday. While the company has not confirmed a specific number of impacted users out of its 430 million subscription members, the disruption has hindered governments, police forces, airlines, and the NHS in the UK. Microsoft reports that efforts to…

Microsoft says efforts to fix global outage 'not going as expected' with millions impacted worldwide →4 articles from Daily Mail on this story
Toronto Star13 Nov

Microsoft is experiencing a widespread outage affecting services like Outlook, Teams, and the Copilot AI assistant, impacting businesses and government operations globally. The company reported that more than 130,000 users on Downdetector flagged Outlook issues on Thursday, and it is currently using a "measured approach" to repair infrastructure while stating there is no evidence of a cyberattack. The report…

Microsoft outage hits companies and governments worldwide as it struggles to restore services →3 articles from Toronto Star on this story
The Independent13 Nov

Microsoft experienced a massive, hours-long outage on Friday that disabled Outlook and Teams for global corporations, governments, and platforms like OpenAI and Anthropic. While Microsoft applied server updates, the company reported that these measures had not yet resulted in a sustained recovery of services. Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke stated that the company believes the disruption was caused by a…

Microsoft outage hits companies and governments worldwide as it struggles to restore services →3 articles from The Independent on this story
Evening Standard13 Nov

Microsoft experienced a massive global outage affecting services like Teams, Copilot, and Outlook, which impacted users and governments across the US, UK, India, Australia, and Japan. Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna confirmed that the disruptions were not caused by a cyber attack, while tech analyst Bob O'Donnell attributed the crash to overloaded servers. The company attempted to mitigate the issue by isolating…

‘Overloaded servers’ caused massive Microsoft outage, says computer expert →3 articles from Evening Standard on this story
Show 18 more outlets
Just the News13 Nov

Microsoft 365 users across multiple regions experienced connectivity errors on Thursday that prevented them from accessing mailboxes or sending and receiving emails through Outlook. The disruption primarily affected Exchange Online, which is Microsoft's cloud-based email service used by businesses and organizations. Microsoft engineers identified that a portion of the company's infrastructure was experiencing…

Microsoft 365 disruption impacts Outlook, email services for users nationwide →2 articles from Just the News on this story
Toronto Sun12 Nov

Microsoft 365 experienced a significant outage on Thursday, November 12, impacting users across the Americas and possibly other regions. Microsoft acknowledged the issue through posts on X, informing users about difficulties accessing Exchange Online mailboxes. Meanwhile, Scotiabank Arena in Toronto has faced criticism for introducing a $2,500 annual concert pass, which grants early access to over 50 shows but has…

News of the day: Microsoft 365 hit by massive outage across the Americas, and more →2 articles from Toronto Sun on this story
BBC13 Nov

Microsoft is currently struggling to resolve a global outage impacting services such as Teams, Outlook, and the AI software Copilot. A monitoring website reports that these connectivity problems are affecting users across 74 different countries. This piece is an explanatory report by Claire Keenan that synthesizes the known information regarding the scope and nature of the technical issues.

What happened overnight with the Microsoft global outage →2 articles from BBC on this story
The Guardian12 Nov

Microsoft is addressing a widespread outage affecting its 365 suite, including Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel, after Down Detector recorded nearly 130,000 reports of connectivity issues. The company identified the cause as a portion of its infrastructure experiencing elevated load because a large number of servers became unexpectedly unavailable during automated checks. Microsoft is currently restarting affected…

Microsoft ‘restarting’ as outage impacts global users, with Outlook and Teams affected →2 articles from The Guardian on this story
The Straits Times13 Nov

A severe Microsoft outage affecting Outlook, Teams, and Copilot has crippled communication workflows for global financial markets, forcing traders in Australia, Singapore, and Japan to revert to phones and fax machines. The disruption has caused delays in corporate disclosures, financing deals, and settlement confirmations while the tech giant struggled to restore access to flagship software. The report highlights…

Microsoft outage gums up markets, forces traders to use phones →2 articles from The Straits Times on this story
NBC News13 Nov

Today, Microsoft experienced widespread outages affecting essential tools like Outlook email, impacting hundreds of millions of users globally. NBC News reporter Allie Canal provides details about the extent and impact of the outage.

Widespread outage of Microsoft apps used by hundreds of millions →2 articles from NBC News on this story
Sydney Morning Herald13 Nov

A global Microsoft outage on a Friday morning disabled email, Teams, and Copilot platforms for Queensland government departments, including health, education, and local government. While 135,000 Queensland Health staff lost email access, Health and Ambulance Services Minister Tim Nicholls reported that emergency services, patient care, and Triple Zero remained unaffected. The report highlights the practical…

Microsoft outage cuts Queensland Health from emails, Teams →2 articles from Sydney Morning Herald on this story
The Hindu13 Nov

Microsoft experienced a widespread global outage on Friday, November 13, 2026, that prevented users from accessing Outlook and various other Microsoft 365 workplace products. DownDetector reported that over 100,000 users initially filed complaints regarding the inaccessible email service, which particularly impacted Exchange Online services used for calendars and tasks. The report focuses on the resulting loss of…

Microsoft Outage: Why did Microsoft Outlook and other products go offline globally? →2 articles from The Hindu on this story
Global News12 Nov

Microsoft 365 users worldwide are experiencing connectivity issues, with over 100,000 reports of outages on Downdetector. The problems began around noon Eastern and affect access to Exchange Online mailboxes and other Microsoft 365 services. Microsoft stated they are investigating and have identified elevated infrastructure load as a contributing factor.

A Microsoft 365 outage is hitting users in regions around the world →
ABC News (US)12 Nov

Microsoft reported issues with users accessing their Exchange Online mailboxes and experiencing problems with Microsoft Teams on Thursday. The company initially posted about the disruptions on social media, identifying a possible cause and working towards a fix. Updates indicated that Teams functionality was restored, but issues with Exchange Online mailboxes continued to affect users globally. Microsoft emphasized…

Outlook outage: Microsoft reports 'issues' with Teams and email →
Reason12 Nov

Stanford University is experiencing a service disruption affecting Microsoft Office 365 email and related services, such as Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online, starting from 9:53 AM on November 12, 2026. The university’s IT department is monitoring the situation and will provide further updates by 1:30 PM. Other services with email integration, including page to email, Mailman, and Cardinal Fax, are also…

Living Today Without Email—Like Animals! →
Al Jazeera12 Nov

Thousands of Microsoft users experienced issues accessing Outlook, Teams, Copilot, and other Microsoft 365 services during a widespread outage on Thursday. Downdetector recorded reports of problems peaking at approximately 130,000 shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern Time before declining to about 77,000 by 3 p.m. The report focuses on Microsoft's technical response to the event, noting that the company identified servers…

Microsoft outage hits tens of thousands of users →
The Daily Wire12 Nov

Microsoft faced a significant outage on Thursday affecting its Microsoft 365 suite, including Outlook email and Teams collaboration tools, with nearly 130,000 reported issues on Downdetector. The company started experiencing problems accessing Exchange Online shortly before 1 p.m. ET and was working to restart servers and revert recent configuration updates to restore service.

Microsoft Outage Disrupts Email, Workplace Apps →
CBC12 Nov

On Thursday, Microsoft experienced widespread outages affecting services like Outlook and Teams, with nearly 130,000 users reporting issues on Downdetector. Microsoft attributed the disruptions to elevated load on its infrastructure, causing some servers to fail during automated checks. The company is working on a fix and reported partial restoration of Teams issues in North America earlier in the day.

Widespread outages reported across Microsoft apps →
Washington Examiner12 Nov

On Thursday, Microsoft Outlook and other Microsoft platforms experienced an outage, affecting over 120,000 users. Reports of the problem surged just before 1:30 p.m., with approximately 130,000 users encountering issues, as tracked by Downdetector. Both the mobile app and website version of Outlook were impacted.

Outage hits Microsoft Outlook, impacting more than 120,000 users →
NPR13 Nov

On Thursday, a significant outage affected Microsoft services including Outlook, causing issues for approximately 130,000 users as reported on Downdetector. Problems included difficulties sending and receiving emails and loading inboxes, alongside issues with Microsoft Teams, Copilot, and other Microsoft 365 applications. Microsoft acknowledged the disruptions and identified them as stemming from an elevated load on…

Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft email and other apps →
City A.M.13 Nov

Microsoft is struggling to restore Outlook, Teams, and Copilot services across 74 countries after a global outage lasted for more than 14 hours on Friday. The company attributed the issue to unexpectedly unavailable servers and reported nearly 140,000 concurrent problems with Outlook access as of Thursday evening. This report highlights the severe risks of global reliance on US tech providers, noting that the outage…

Microsoft struggling to restore Outlook and Teams after global outage →
New York Post13 Nov

A major outage impacted Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook and Teams, across the United States, Australia, Japan, and India for approximately 12 hours. Downdetector recorded a peak of over 130,000 reports of Outlook problems in the US, affecting government agencies, major AI companies like OpenAI, and various airlines. The report highlights Microsoft's struggle to stabilize the infrastructure after initial…

Microsoft platforms including Outlook, Teams down as tech giant struggles to fix outage →

Where they agree and split

Agreed

Reported by outlets on both sides of the middle

The tech giant said a part of its infrastructure was experiencing "elevated load", which was likely contributing to connectivity errors.

7 outlets
Show 1 more

Then, just before 2:15, the company said it had “paused all deployments,” moved “additional traffic off the affected infrastructure,” and that they were restarting affected servers to return them to service.

5 outlets

Framing

How the first headlines put it

Attributed to a source4
Stated as fact15
The headlines (19)

Outlook outage: Microsoft reports 'issues' with Teams and email ABC News · attributed to a source

Microsoft users report outages amid tech giant 'connectivity issues' BBC · attributed to a source

Widespread outage hits Microsoft platforms including Outlook, thousands report issues NBC News · attributed to a source

Outlook 'is down': Tens of thousands of users report website, login and app issues Daily Mail · attributed to a source

A Microsoft 365 outage is hitting users in regions around the world Global News · stated as fact

Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft apps Toronto Star · stated as fact

Microsoft 365 disruption impacts Outlook, email services for users nationwide Just the News · stated as fact

Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft and OpenAI The Independent · stated as fact

Breaking: Microsoft platforms suffering widespread outages, including Outlook ABC News (Australia) · stated as fact

Microsoft 365 hit by massive outage across the Americas Toronto Sun · stated as fact

Living Today Without Email—Like Animals! Reason · stated as fact

Microsoft ‘restarting’ as outage impacts global users, with Outlook and Teams affected The Guardian · stated as fact

Microsoft outage hits tens of thousands of users Al Jazeera · stated as fact

Major outage hits Microsoft Outlook; Singapore users affected The Straits Times · stated as fact

Microsoft Outage Disrupts Email, Workplace Apps The Daily Wire · stated as fact

Widespread outages reported across Microsoft apps CBC · stated as fact

Outage hits Microsoft Outlook, impacting more than 120,000 users Washington Examiner · stated as fact

Global outage for Microsoft Sydney Morning Herald · stated as fact

Is Outlook down? Widespread outage hits Microsoft email and other apps NPR · stated as fact

The full story: what happened, how it changed, and all 46 articles →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 10% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Independent
Hedges 4 of 11 claims Outlet record 59/100

Story

Microsoft outage
Other · 46 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
10%
2 of 21 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
72/100
Dawn's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
46
Other
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-13 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Dawn · 3115 article(s) · 3 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 3 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Reuters
1071 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) are set to review their decision to exclude Myanmar when they meet in Manila from Nov 15 to Nov 17.
It is the second disruption to Microsoft’s 365 services this year, raising concerns that repeated failures could push corporate clients to question Microsoft’s reliability.
We will continue to treat this incident with urgency and priority until full resolution,” Microsoft said.
Democratic US Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Thursday he would run for Senate majority leader, challenging Chuck Schumer, who has led the Democrats in the Senate since 2017, after the Democratic Party won a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections.
When Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap election last month, he was betting that anger over housing and fear of the far right would rally all shades of the left behind his Socialists.
“So then, I’ve got no idea who those two people would be because I don’t remember ever being asked or having a conversation about it.”
Beijing is hosting the APEC leaders’ summit in Shenzhen next week, where U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet for the third time this year.
“As capacity is restored, users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect,” Microsoft said in a previous statement.
Alice Huang could not be reached for comment.
Officers with rifles could be seen positioned atop buildings nearby, while dozens of police vehicles shut down the area.
Wire or desk byline, not an individual reporter.
Also by Reuters
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 1071 articles by Reuters →

Topics

Australia CrowdStrike Exchange Online Microsoft Outlook

Subjects

Microsoft ORG · 14× Australia GPE · 2× CrowdStrike ORG · 2× Australian NORP · 1× Burke PERSON · 1× Downdetector ORG · 1× Home Affairs ORG · 1× India GPE · 1× Japan GPE · 1× Tony Burke PERSON · 1×

Narrative

“They believe they are dealing in some ways similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry,” Burke said at a press conference. “The impact that they are dealing with … is very much on email systems,” the minister added.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-13
“As capacity is restored, users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect,” Microsoft said in a previous statement.

Claims (21 extracted, 2 hedged)

Microsoft services such as Outlook and Teams were disrupted for about 10 hours on Friday as the tech giant struggled to fix issues with some servers, hitting businesses and government agencies globally that use the popular platforms. asserted
that → disrupt → platforms
In its latest update, Microsoft said efforts to improve serviceability were not progressing as expected. asserted
efforts → say → serviceability
“Were identifying alternate workstreams that can be applied to increase capacity in the face of sustained traffic management imbalances,” it said. asserted
it → identify → imbalances
Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources, showed more than 25,000 reports of Outlook problems in the US at 9:30 p.m. ET (0230 GMT). asserted
which → track → p.m.
It also showed outages for several Microsoft services in the Asia-Pacific region, including India, Australia and Japan, early Friday local time. asserted
It → show → India
At its peak, Downdetector showed more than 130,000 reports of Outlook problems in the US around 1 p.m. ET on Thursday. asserted
Downdetector → show → Thursday
In a service health notice, Microsoft said features of Microsoft 365 services that depended on Exchange Online and email were affected, while elements that did not rely on Exchange Online remained functional. asserted
that → say → Online
Exchange Online is the company’s cloud-based messaging platform that delivers email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. asserted
that → base → email
Impact on email systems Australian Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said that Microsoft believed it was not dealing with a cyberattack. asserted
it → say → cyberattack
“They believe they are dealing in some ways similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry,” Burke said at a press conference. “The impact that they are dealing with … is very much on email systems,” the minister added. asserted
minister → believe → systems
Australia’s spy agency and federal police were among organisations caught up in the outage on Friday. asserted
agency → catch → Friday
The CrowdStrike malfunction of 2024 was one of the largest internet disruptions, hobbling technology systems in hospitals, banks, and airports, highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies. asserted
malfunction → hobble → technologies
The US House of Representatives said the outage impacted its users and its engineers were working with Microsoft. asserted
engineers → say → Microsoft
The company had earlier in the day pointed to a number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable and said it was not driven by an increase in traffic. asserted
it → point → traffic
Microsoft had then said the restored servers remained stable so far and that it was shifting traffic to alternate routes wherever possible while streamlining the process to bring the remaining impacted servers back online. asserted
it → say → servers
“As capacity is restored, users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect,” Microsoft said in a previous statement. uncertain
Microsoft → restore → statement
At 6 p.m. ET (2300 GMT), Microsoft had said it observed limited recovery as users gradually reconnected. asserted
users → say → recovery
Businesses feel the impact OpenAI said it was investigating an issue with Microsoft connectors in which new connections may be broken and tools are not working as expected. uncertain
tools → feel → which
Anthropic said it had identified an issue with an upstream provider affecting its Microsoft 365 connector. asserted
it → say → connector
Microsoft last month reported an outage of its Azure cloud platform that impacted the tech giant’s suite of productivity software, and a range of industries worldwide. asserted
that → report → industries
Electric truck maker Workhorse Group, which was expected to report third-quarter results on November 12, rescheduled it to November 16 citing business disruptions caused by the global Microsoft outage. asserted
which → expect → outage
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