This is the follow-up to the global Microsoft 365 outage that began on Thursday, November 12, when Outlook and Teams first went down worldwide and limited recovery was reported that evening. Read the original outage report
Microsoft on Friday (local time) apologised to customers and partners after a global outage disrupted Outlook, Microsoft Teams and Copilot, saying it was witnessing broad recovery and stability across its services, The Hindu BusinessLine reported on Saturday, November 14.
Source: The Hindu BusinessLine, Nov 14, 2026
"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously," Microsoft said in a statement posted on X, quoted by BusinessLine. The company said it had addressed the underlying issue and was continuing to restore services for customers and regions still experiencing disruption.
Source: The Hindu BusinessLine, Nov 14, 2026
What caused it — and what it was not
Microsoft said the disruption was caused by a technical issue linked to an earlier network capacity upgrade, which surfaced following a recent network change, and clarified that the incident was not related to a cyberattack or to artificial intelligence agents, BusinessLine reported. Reuters reported that Microsoft said the outage specifically hit features tied to Exchange Online, its cloud-based email and scheduling hub, while unconnected applications stayed operational.
Source: Reuters via The Business Standard, Nov 14, 2026
Scale: 74 countries, millions without access
The outage left millions of users without access to Microsoft services for nearly 18 hours, disrupting businesses, schools, government agencies and airline operations across at least 74 countries, including the United States, BusinessLine reported. Reuters described the disruption as easing on Friday after more than 24 hours, with reports first climbing around 1725 GMT on Thursday, according to Ookla, making it one of the longest outages in Microsoft's history and its second disruption this year.
Source: Reuters via The Business Standard, Nov 14, 2026
Airlines, governments and AI firms hit
The disruption prompted major Indian carriers to issue passenger advisories, and Indian airlines IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India said their email support services were impacted, the reports said. Government agencies from Australia and Japan to the United States were affected; in Britain, the NHS turned to alternative measures and London's Metropolitan Police said online crime reporting was affected, while European exchange operator Euronext reported email disruption and Danish shipping giant Maersk warned customers of delayed updates, Reuters reported. American AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic also faced issues with Microsoft connectors.
Source: Reuters via The Business Standard, Nov 14, 2026
Restoration — and what happens next
Microsoft said services were brought back gradually, with stability validated at each stage given the scale of demand, and that while this took longer it helped ensure a stable restoration, BusinessLine reported. The company said it will provide a full post-incident report once its review is complete. Reuters reported that outage reports had spiked as employees began their workdays across Asia and Europe, and quoted Ookla analyst Luke Kehoe as saying the incident shows how much of the working day now runs through one provider's email and collaboration tools.
Source: The Hindu BusinessLine, Nov 14, 2026
On the financial side, Reuters reported Microsoft shares closed flat at $523.88 on Friday, and quoted Morningstar DBRS analyst Mario De Cicco estimating global insured losses from the incident at between $300 million and $500 million — an estimate, not a confirmed loss figure. That estimate is well below the $400 million to $1.5 billion toll Reuters cited for the 2024 CrowdStrike outage.