Ace Breaking News – UPDATE – Microsoft Outlook, one of the world’s most popular email software programs, is down for millions of users around the world, including in the UK. Microsoft admits efforts to fix global outage not going ‘as expected’ according to a MetroUK News report by Josh Milton
Individual users, governments and businesses worldwide who rely on Microsoft systems were left in the dark after the outage hit yesterday afternoon.
If you were hoping for a quick recovery, Microsoft services appear to be largely down this morning, spelling a second day of misery for users.
The tech giant said: ‘We’ve monitored the status of the changes applied to improve serviceability and confirmed that change is not taking as expected.’
In an update late yesterday evening, the company said there is no ‘sustained recovery,’ adding that it is ‘continuing our efforts to improve server stability to improve traffic flow.’
Microsoft revealed earlier that some parts of its infrastructure were ‘experiencing elevated load,’ but executive vice president Charles Lamanna ruled out a cyberattack.
However, experts have warned that the glitch could have widespread consequences as many operations are connected to Microsoft networks.
Several airlines have reported that their email customer service is affected by the outage.
The issue on both the desktop and app versions of Outlook began just after 5.20pm, according to outage tracker Downdetector.
Within just 20 minutes, the number rose to more than 3,300. Reports have since fallen to more than 1,200 as of about 10.50pm.
Scores of people are also struggling to use the videoconferencing app Teams and Copilot, the company’s AI chatbot.
A few dozen users reported difficulties with OneDrive, an online file storage service.
Some 130,000 people in the US were unable to access Outlook at 6.15pm, with issues first springing up at 4pm.
The number of impacted users has since dropped to more than 39,000 as of 10.50pm.
Users loading Outlook are being met with a ‘Failed to fetch’ error, when a browser sends a request to a server and fails to hear back.
Some users are experiencing a black screen with white code on it which, in Spanish, says the browser can’t reach Outlook’s servers.
If the website or app did load, inboxes would appear blank, and emails would neither send nor receive.
What Microsoft apps have been impacted?
– Exchange Online
– Microsoft Teams
– SharePoint Online
– Microsoft Copilot 365
– Microsoft Defender XDR
– Microsoft Planner
– Microsoft To Do
– Microsoft Intune
– Microsoft Defender for Office 365
– Microsoft Purview:
The issue is having a ripple effect on governments, businesses and other tech platforms globally.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and Anthropic are also reporting issues linked to services that rely on Microsoft.
Why is Microsoft Outlook down?
Microsoft initially said the outage was only impacting ‘mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas’.
But a post on its 365 Status account said: ‘The issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity for users in any region’.
It urged people to use its status webpage for more info, though users say the page does not load.
If it does, the page says Microsoft 365, the company’s family of software and services, is ‘severely degraded’.
Microsoft said in an update at 10pm: ‘We’ve begun returning a portion of the affected servers to service, and they’re remaining stable so far.
‘We’ve also shifted traffic and connections to alternative pathways wherever possible and have observed limited recovery in some regions.’
We’re aggressively pursuing all pathways to reduce impact. We’ve paused all deployments, we’re moving additional traffic off the affected infrastructure, and we’re restarting affected servers to return them to service. More info under EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365…— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 12, 2026
Microsoft said servers becoming ‘unexpectedly unavailable’ appears to be the cause of the outage, causing its system to buckle.
‘We’ve initiated a restart of all affected servers and are monitoring health as they return to service, the company added.
But as one X user replied: ‘So, basically, you’re turning it off and turning it back on.’
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