A major flaw in Microsoft’s Microsoft 365 services affected several platforms, including Outlook, Teams, and Copilot. Due to a server issue, users faced difficulties with email, messaging, and other essential tasks.
A major technical glitch has affected several Microsoft services. The issue, which originated within the company’s cloud-based suite, Microsoft 365, has impacted various platforms, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and the AI assistant, Copilot. As a result, users worldwide faced difficulties accessing emails, sending messages, and carrying out essential tasks. The outage began on November 12, and even after several hours, the company continued to struggle with fully restoring its services.
The outage particularly impacted companies and employees who rely on Microsoft 365 services for their daily operations. Users reported issues such as the inability to open emails in Outlook, as well as difficulties in sending and receiving new messages. Additionally, certain features within Microsoft Teams and the capabilities of the AI assistant, Copilot, were also affected.
Over 130,000 users reported issues
According to Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, complaints regarding Outlook surged during this disruption. At one point, the number of reports exceeded 130,000. Additionally, thousands of users reported issues with Microsoft 365 and other services. It is worth noting that these figures from Downdetector are based on complaints submitted by users, meaning the actual number of affected individuals is likely even higher.
Why did Microsoft’s services go down?
According to Microsoft, certain parts of its infrastructure were experiencing a load higher than usual. However, the company later clarified that the issue was not caused by a sudden spike in user traffic; rather, several servers became unexpectedly unavailable. This placed increased pressure on the remaining servers, leading to connectivity problems.
The company’s investigation revealed that a process responsible for establishing secure connections on the affected servers had stopped functioning due to excessive load. As a result, the servers were unable to process requests. To resolve the issue, Microsoft took several steps, including restarting the servers, rerouting traffic to other infrastructure, and reviewing certain configuration changes.
Services not yet fully restored
Although Microsoft made multiple attempts to restore the services, the company encountered a further challenge: the servers that had been restarted and brought back online became unresponsive again once they began receiving traffic. Consequently, the company initiated a process to gradually restore services by running some servers with older software configurations and implementing traffic limits.
It should be noted that as of the morning of November 13, several Microsoft 365 services continue to experience issues. According to an update from the company, efforts are underway to restore stability to the affected infrastructure.
