{"id":16061,"date":"2026-11-13T17:33:01","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=16061"},"modified":"2026-11-13T17:33:01","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T17:33:01","slug":"microsoft-reports-progress-in-reviving-email-and-other-services-during-global-outage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=16061","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft reports progress in reviving email and other services during global outage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This illustration photograph shows the Microsoft Outlook logo displayed on a smartphone with the backdrop of Microsoft logo on a screen, in New Delhi on Friday. Healthcare services were disrupted, corporate earnings reports delayed and schools struggled to communicate on Friday as a widespread outage affecting several Microsoft products, including Outlook, rippled across the globe, with no indication of when full service would be restored. AFP-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Microsoft said progress is being made in bringing its popular workplace software back online as a global outage enters its second day, disrupting business communications, police crime reporting, court operations, AI tools and many other services.<\/p>\n

The outage, which affected a wide range of Microsoft 365 services including Outlook, Teams and AI assistant Copilot, left people, institutions and businesses across the world without access to email and other platforms.<\/p>\n

Microsoft said it was making headway as it tried to restore services Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure,\u201d the company said, as some users started reporting that their emails were restored.<\/p>\n

The company reported \u201cbroader improvements\u201d in North America and \u201csustained improvements across much of Europe,\u201d as well as \u201cencouraging recovery signals\u201d in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

Users may have \u201cintermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as mitigation progresses across the remaining affected infrastructure,\u201d Microsoft said.<\/p>\n

The total number of people affected is not clear, but the company said in January that it had more than 450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions.<\/p>\n

Microsoft scrambles to recover services<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its latest status update, Microsoft reported that it was continuing to see improvements in service with \u201cemail queues significantly reduced and approaching normal levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Redmond, Washington, company first flagged technical issues just before 1 p.m. Eastern time Thursday.<\/p>\n

So far, there is no indication that the outage was caused by malicious activity, the company said.<\/p>\n

Microsoft engineers struggled to bring systems online early. “Our actions taken thus far have not provided the anticipated relief,\u201d the company wrote as part of a series of 22 posts on X.<\/p>\n

By Friday morning there were signs that the situation was stabilizing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as recovery continues,\u201d it said in its latest post.<\/p>\n

Europe woke up to disruptions<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Britain, the outage brought a halt to a trial in Manchester. Judge Maurice Greene sent jurors home because of delays that he said illustrated the danger of the court\u2019s reliance on technology.<\/p>\n

The British government said it is \u201cworking closely\u201d with Microsoft to assess any impact on public services but that \u201crobust contingency plans\u201d are in place to minimize disruption.<\/p>\n

British police forces said they\u2019re unable to receive crime reports online and are urging people to phone in urgent requests.<\/p>\n

The National Pharmacy Association said people could face delays getting their prescriptions because the outage is affecting the email systems of the state-run National Health Service.<\/p>\n

In Norway, the government said the outage affected several ministries and had not received any indication about when the problem would be resolved.<\/p>\n

Greece\u2019s Minister of Digital Governance Dimitrios Papastergiou said government ministries using Outlook, Teams and Copilot were affected but not to the degree that would significantly hamper their work.<\/p>\n

Asian businesses and governments were affected<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Friday that Microsoft had likened the disruption to the 2024 CrowdStrike outage, which stemmed from a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows. That outage grounded flights and disrupted hospitals, banks and retailers.<\/p>\n

Burke said he had spoken to Microsoft\u2019s top executive in Australia and the government\u2019s national cybersecurity coordinator about the disruption.<\/p>\n

“They (Microsoft) don\u2019t believe they are dealing with a cyberattack. They believe that they are dealing in some ways (with something) similar to what we saw with respect to CrowdStrike where there is an update that has gone awry,\u201d Burke told reporters in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong businessperson Danny Lau, who runs an aluminum firm, said his company couldn’t receive updates from its U.S. customers through Outlook. If the situation dragged on further, this could \u201cimpact the production timeline,\u201d he said. Some banks in Hong Kong, an Asian financial hub, also saw some operations disrupted.<\/p>\n

Air India and IndiGo said their flight operations were unaffected. IndiGo reported email support services were disrupted, affecting its ability to receive customer queries.<\/p>\n

Air India temporarily rerouted its email services so customer queries could get through without interruption, the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Singapore government said emails were down and that the agency is working with Microsoft to resolve the issue. The Philippines’ Supreme Court said some operations were affected, including email responses.<\/p>\n

In Japan, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masanao Ozaki said the government\u2019s IT infrastructure was affected and that officials were \u201ckeeping a close eye on the developments.\u201d Japanese authorities had taken steps including securing alternative communication tools such as telephones, the government said.<\/p>\n

U.S.-based industrial technology company Workhorse Group Inc. delayed a quarterly earnings call.<\/p>\n

OpenAI and Anthropic reported problems connecting with Microsoft 365 tools, underscoring the ripple effects as more people use artificial intelligence platforms to interact with other companies\u2019 software.<\/p>\n

The widespread disruptions highlight dependence on a single tech company<\/strong><\/p>\n

The widespread impact highlights how reliance on one company and its suite of services can be crippling during such an outage, experts and officials said.<\/p>\n

Papastergiou in Greece said government ministries using Outlook, Teams and Copilot were affected.<\/p>\n

He told private Skai television that underscores how countries should develop technological alternatives for services considered crucial for the smooth operation of government.<\/p>\n

Florian Druckenthaner, a spokesperson for Germany\u2019s digitization ministry, said the government\u2019s IT security agency believes German business was widely affected, but there were no reports of major disruption at government level.<\/p>\n

He said that the federal government doesn\u2019t use Microsoft in the cloud, and that the federal administration also uses an email client that was stable.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the cause, Druckenthaner said, the incident shows \u201cthe significance of building up redundancies and alternatives \u2013 we are working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith no emails coming or going, many office workers feel like they are having a virtual snow day,\u201d said Jeremy Singer, a professor at the University of Glasgow\u2019s School of Computing Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis problem serves to emphasize the dependence we have built on one company\u2019s digital infrastructure, and may lead us to question whether we need more resilience in our IT ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Governments and institutions in Western Europe have been trying to reduce their reliance on services provided by a few big U.S. tech services in their continuing push for \u201cdigital sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This illustration photograph shows the Microsoft Outlook logo displayed on a smartphone with the backdrop of Microsoft logo on a screen, in New Delhi on Friday. Healthcare services were disrupted, corporate earnings reports delayed and schools struggled to communicate on Friday as a widespread outage affecting several Microsoft products, including Outlook, rippled across the globe,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","category-trending-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t