The Microsoft outage that began Thursday, November 12, was still disrupting Outlook, Teams and Copilot on Friday, according to reports from Digital Trends, Gizmodo and CBS News. Microsoft said service was improving but not fully restored. Its public status page still showed degradation for business and consumer Microsoft 365 on Friday morning, Gizmodo reported.
This brief covers what the Microsoft outage affects, what Microsoft has said about the cause, and what readers can do if email is down. It also answers the question many people are asking: is delayed email lost? The steps in the how-to sections are The Jolt Journal’s suggestions, not Microsoft guidance. The facts below come from press reports published Thursday and Friday, and the situation may have changed since.
Microsoft outage timeline
Digital Trends reported that Exchange Online problems began at about 11:17 a.m. ET on Thursday. A broader Microsoft 365 outage followed at 1:26 p.m. ET. Gizmodo put the start of problems at around noon Thursday.
| When | What was reported | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, about 11:17 a.m. ET | Exchange Online problems begin | Digital Trends |
| Thursday, 1:26 p.m. ET | Broader Microsoft 365 outage | Digital Trends |
| Thursday | More than 130,000 Downdetector reports for Outlook at the peak | CBS News |
| Friday morning | Microsoft says availability is improving; status page still shows degradation | Gizmodo |
| Friday | Early signs of recovery; server capacity still below normal; no estimate for full restoration | Digital Trends |
The Microsoft outage therefore ran more than a full day. Microsoft told CBS News that recovery actions were “ongoing” and had “progressed in phases across affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure,” according to CBS.
What the Microsoft outage affects
The scope differs by product and by user. Digital Trends listed the following, and noted that not every feature is down for everyone.
| Service | What users reported |
|---|---|
| Outlook and Exchange Online | Trouble opening mailboxes, sending mail and receiving mail |
| Teams | Mainly calendar and meeting scheduling; chat and calling still work for many users |
| Copilot | Some users cannot reach chats or retrieve information |
| Other business services | SharePoint Online, Defender XDR, Intune, Planner and To Do |
| Consumer services | Outlook.com, OneDrive, OneNote and Microsoft 365 for the web, with varying impact |
Readers can check the current state on Microsoft’s service health page. Administrators have a more detailed view in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
What caused the Microsoft outage
Microsoft has not named a root cause. Gizmodo reported that Microsoft said a large number of servers became unavailable without warning, “straining the remaining infrastructure.” The company later found that a process responsible for establishing secure connections was overwhelmed, which left servers unresponsive. Microsoft rolled out a patch to improve stability but has not identified the underlying cause, Gizmodo said.
- No attack found. Digital Trends reported that Microsoft sees “no indication of malicious activity.”
- Restart trouble. Per Digital Trends, restarted servers became unresponsive again once traffic returned.
- A different account. CBS News reported that Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said “there is an update that has gone awry,” which he described as relayed from Microsoft. Microsoft’s own public statements describe a server and capacity problem, and the two descriptions have not been reconciled.
The Jolt Journal’s earlier coverage of a separate incident, in which Microsoft said AI agents targeted 2,250 tenants, is a different matter and is not linked to this Microsoft outage in any report reviewed.
Who the Microsoft outage hit
Gizmodo listed organizations that reported problems. The list gives a sense of how far the effects reached.
| Sector | Examples reported |
|---|---|
| Local government | City of Austin employees could not send or receive email |
| Law enforcement | LA County Sheriff’s Department reported disruptions; Arapahoe County, Colorado, moved online bond payments to in-person |
| Business | Maersk warned of delayed emails; Workhorse Group postponed its third-quarter earnings release and call to next week |
| Japan | Government ministries posted paper notices of schedules for journalists |
| Health | Some UK NHS hospitals reported email disruptions |
| Education | Stanford University and George Mason University reported disruptions |
Is delayed email lost during a Microsoft outage?
Probably not, but nothing is guaranteed. Digital Trends reported that Microsoft extended its email timeout window to 48 hours so delayed messages are not dropped. The article paraphrased Microsoft and did not quote it, and The Jolt Journal did not find Microsoft’s own wording. Treat the 48-hour figure as reported, not confirmed.
Microsoft did say on X on Friday morning that “Some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery as recovery continues,” according to Gizmodo. That wording points to delay, not loss.
- Incoming mail: a sender’s own system may keep retrying for a time, so messages may arrive late.
- Outgoing mail: a message stuck in an outbox or drafts folder may send once service returns.
- Bounce notices: an “undeliverable” reply is the clearest sign that a message did not go through.
What to do during a Microsoft outage if your email is down
These steps are The Jolt Journal’s suggestions. They assume the Microsoft outage is the cause, as reports indicate, and not a problem in a single user’s account.
- Check the status page first. If Microsoft lists an active incident, restarting the app or resetting a password will not help.
- Use another channel for anything urgent. A phone call or text works. Teams chat and calling reportedly still work for many users, though that varies.
- Do not send the same message repeatedly. Duplicates may all arrive at once when the queue clears.
- Look for bounce notices. A returned message tells you what to resend and what to leave alone.
- Be wary of “fix” emails. Outages often attract phishing. Go to the official status page directly instead of clicking a link in a message.
- Tell contacts you are affected. A short note from a personal account saves confusion about a missed reply.
Files saved on your own computer do not depend on email. Files that open from OneDrive or SharePoint may be affected, because those services are on the list of impacted products.
What the Microsoft outage does not show yet
Several questions about the Microsoft outage are open. Microsoft has not given a root cause or a time for full restoration. It has not said how many users were affected in total, and reports of the scale vary. Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Copilot, Agents and Platform, called recovery progress “encouraging” in a statement to Gizmodo and said, “Our teams are reviewing what happened and how we can prevent similar issues going forward.”
For context on the company’s scale, the site’s coverage of Microsoft’s first-quarter earnings shows how much of its business runs on cloud services such as these.
Editor’s take
Editor’s take: this Microsoft outage is a reminder that email, calendars, chat and an AI assistant can all depend on the same back end. When that back end slips, the failure looks large even if no data is lost. The practical lesson for readers is small and cheap: keep one way to reach key contacts that does not run through your employer’s Microsoft account. Wait for Microsoft’s root-cause report on the Microsoft outage before drawing conclusions about why it happened.
This article is for general information, based on press reports from Digital Trends, Gizmodo and CBS News and Microsoft’s public status page as of the evening of November 13, 2026. Details may change as Microsoft updates its findings. The suggestions here are not Microsoft guidance or IT advice.
