Microsoft works to restore services after 365 outage

Microsoft said it was working to restore Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services on November 12 after servers became unexpectedly unavailable and strained the remaining infrastructure. The disruption could affect connectivity in any region, the company said, but it had not confirmed a full restoration or the underlying cause in its latest update.

Microsoft reported problems with Exchange Online mailboxes, the cloud service behind many workplace Outlook accounts, and warned that users might be unable to connect to several services. Its list of potentially affected products included Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Defender XDR. That warning did not mean every customer or feature was affected.

The company said the elevated load was not caused by increased traffic. Instead, unexpectedly unavailable servers left the remaining systems handling more work. Microsoft said failed automated health checks may have caused servers to become unavailable, and its investigation pointed to a component responsible for processing those checks. The company had not established that component as the definitive cause.

Microsoft’s recovery measures included redistributing...