Microsoft 365 Services Gradually Restore After Two-Day Global Outage

Microsoft’s suite of workplace applications, including Outlook and the Copilot AI assistant, began returning to service for some users on Friday as a widespread outage extended into a second day, disrupting operations for major enterprises and millions of individuals globally.

The company has ruled out malicious activity, stating it has no evidence linking the incident to a cyberattack or hack. Early morning service updates indicated recovery progress across Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, with Japan described as “comparatively more stable.” By 7 a.m. ET, services in North America were also improving, though Microsoft cautioned that intermittent issues may persist as recovery efforts continue.

People pass near the Microsoft offices in Tokyo on Nov. 13, 2026. (Andrew CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The disruption began Thursday afternoon, crippling Exchange Online, the core engine powering Microsoft’s email infrastructure. As of Friday morning, access remained inconsistent; some Outlook users regained the ability to send and receive messages, while others continued to face delays as engineers worked to clear substantial email queues and backlogs.

To prevent message loss during the extended downtime, Microsoft expanded its email timeout window to 48 hours. Standard protocol typically bounces undeliverable messages back to the sender after a brief window; this extension preserves emails caught in the backlog since Thursday afternoon until at least Saturday afternoon.

A computer screen showing no service available from Microsoft Outlook on Nov. 13, 2026, in Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom. (Hugh R Hastings/Getty Images / Getty Images)

The impact extended well beyond basic email. Users reported significant disruptions to scheduling and productivity tools, including calendar access, meeting invites, and event editing. The broader Microsoft 365 suite was also affected, hindering access to recent files in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and blocking external file sharing via SharePoint Online. Copilot, the AI assistant integrated across the platform, remained heavily impaired, preventing users from loading chats, generating responses, or retrieving data from emails, calendars, and files.

Major AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, have reported major disruptions to their Microsoft 365 integration tools. Those disruptions were ongoing as of Friday morning. (Idrees MOHAMMED / AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

The outage reverberated across the corporate sector. Indian carriers IndiGo and Akasa Air reported issues with customer-support email systems, while Air India temporarily rerouted its email services. Leading artificial intelligence firms were also caught in the crossfire; both OpenAI and Anthropic reported ongoing failures with their Microsoft 365 integration tools Friday morning. Anthropic noted that mail, calendar, and search tools in its Microsoft 365 connector were “still failing for most requests,” while OpenAI warned that new Microsoft connections for ChatGPT could fail and existing tools were not functioning as expected.

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