What caused the Outlook outage? Microsoft issues apology after some services restored

Technology What caused the Outlook outage? Microsoft issues apology after some services restored The software giant issued the apology at 10:40 a.m. CT. Friday, nearly 24 hours after the massive outage began. By NBC Chicago Staff and The Associated Press • Published 13 minutes ago • Updated 10 minutes ago Microsoft issued an apology Friday morning after an hours-long global outage impacting Outlook, CoPilot and other 365 apps, saying the problems were due to a "technical issue" and that it was not related to cyber, AI or AI agents. The software giant issued the apology at 10:40 a.m. CT. Friday, nearly 24 hours after the massive outage began. Stream NBC 5 for free, 24/7, wherever you are. WATCH HERE We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services. This was a technical issue… — Microsoft (@Microsoft) November 13, 2026 "We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," the statement said in part. "We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously." The company went on to say that the "incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change." Further details about the issue weren't provided. Services would continue to be restored gradually, Microsoft said. "We will provide a full post-incident report once our review is complete." Local Responds 3 hours ago Holiday travel is the most expensive it's been in a decade. 3 ways to save Recalls 3 hours ago Kirkland-brand Costco dessert recalled because it could contain cleaning chemicals The full statement from Microsoft can be found below: We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners. We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services. This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents. The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions. Given the scale of demand, we restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage. While this took longer, it helped ensure a stable restoration. We will provide a full post-incident report once our review is complete. The statement came hours after some users reported seeing Outlook and mail services coming back online following "encouraging progress" early Friday morning. Service may be intermittent for some customers, Microsoft said, as it continues to be restored. We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure. Some users may still experience intermittent issues as recovery actions continue. We’re focused on… — Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 13, 2026 Over 430 million people use Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft said on its website. When did the outage start? The company said it determined the problems that started around noon Thursday were in part because a "portion of infrastructure is experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which is likely contributing to the connectivity errors." In a later update, the company said the elevated load was not from an increase in traffic but instead from a number of servers that "unexpectedly" became unavailable and prompted a strain on the remaining infrastructure, and that their technicians were also working to address a problem that was causing servers to become unavailable after failing automated health checks. Friday, the company said it did not have any indication that the outage was caused by malicious activity and would treat the incident “with urgency and priority until full resolution.” Last month, Microsoft offered 60,000 employees, or about 27% of its workforce globally, voluntary buyouts . It’s unclear how many workers have accepted such offers (and actual departures are reportedly scheduled for December). But the announcement arrived just months after Microsoft initiated 4,800 job cuts , notably in its Xbox video game business. For the 4,800 layoffs announced in July, Microsoft’s chief people officer Amy Coleman cited unspecified changes in customer needs and stated that the eliminated roles “are not being replaced by AI.” Still, the broader workforce reductions arrive as the software giant spends heavily on artificial intelligence overall. In its latest quarterly earnings, Microsoft raked in a profit of $36.63 billion and revenue of $92.28 billion, surpassing Wall Street expectations. The company continued to tout its AI and cloud-based investments. Microsoft has not tied this week’s outage to recent job reductions at the company. This article tagged under: Technology