Everything you need to know about the Microsoft outage
After a day of chaos, the worst of the Microsoft outage appears to have passed, but some problems still remain


Life is getting back to normal for users of Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams after significant outages yesterday that affected users worldwide.
Earlier this morning, Microsoft said it had restored functionality for all impacted services except Outlook on the web, and that it was monitoring and troubleshooting to fully recover.
"We're still addressing lingering issues with Outlook on the web affecting some users and investigating mail queuing delays causing longer delivery times," the company said in a statement on X.
“Most users and core services have recovered following our mitigation efforts. We're addressing remaining issues and still expect full restoration by Tuesday, November 26, 2024, at 3:00 AM UTC."
The problem emerged around 8am ET yesterday, with several thousand reports of technical issues emerging by lunchtime, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.
As of this morning, the number of reports is creeping up again, but are still at far lower levels than yesterday.
The company put the outage down to a recent change which it swiftly reversed.
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2025 report - the leading guidance on AI, cybersecurity and other IT challenges as per 700+ senior executives
By midday yesterday, it said it had deployed the fix to around 70% of the affected environments, and was carrying out manual restarts on the remaining impacted machines.
According to Microsoft, around 98% of affected machines have been fixed, although its targeted restarts progressed more slowly than expected. It does, though, expect to get the job finished today.
Users are being encouraged to check the company's admin center for updates, referencing issue MO941162. The next update is expected later today.
Currently, users are being warned that Outlook users may find they can't access their mailbox using Outlook on the web, Outlook desktop client, Representational State Transfer (REST) or Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), and that they may experience mail transport delays.
Microsoft outage: Some issues still remain
There's also a warning that Teams users are unable to create or update Virtual Events, including webinars and Town Halls.
They may also be unable to access or modify their calendar in Microsoft Teams, including by loading the calendar, viewing meetings, creating/updating meetings and joining meetings.
RELATED WHITEPAPER
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s admin center advice notes that Teams users can't create chat, add users, and create or edit meetings; nor can they create or modify new teams and channels.
Users may be unable to update presence, use the search function or see an updated list of files and links failing to load within the Chat shared tab.
These warnings may be removed in the next update, and ITPro will update accordingly.
Emma Woollacott is a freelance journalist writing for publications including the BBC, Private Eye, Forbes, Raconteur and specialist technology titles.
-
Salesforce says ‘Microsoft’s anticompetitive tying of Teams' harmed business in triumphant response to EU concessions agreement
News Microsoft has agreed to make versions of its Office solutions suite available without Teams – and at a reduced price
-
US Senator calls for Microsoft FTC probe over ‘gross cybersecurity negligence’ – Ron Wyden claims the tech giant has provided ‘dangerous, insecure software’ to the US government
News Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, has written to the chair of the FTC calling for an investigation into Microsoft's cyber practices.
-
Microsoft touts new Copilot features in Excel, but says you shouldn’t use them if you want accurate results
News Microsoft has warned against using new AI features in Excel for “tasks with legal, regulatory, or compliance implications” – so when can you use it?
-
A senior Microsoft exec says future Windows versions will offer more interactive, ‘multimodal’ experiences
News With speculation over a Windows 12 reveal mounting, a senior company figure claims the new operating system will mark a step change for users
-
Microsoft says AI is finally having a 'meaningful impact' on developer productivity – and 80% 'would be sad if they could no longer use it'
News Researchers at Microsoft wanted to demystify how AI is being used by software developers – their findings show the benefits are finally becoming clear.
-
Microsoft’s botched August updates wiped SSDs, now it’s breaking PC resets and recoveries on Windows
News An out-of-band patch has been issued by Microsoft to fix a flaw introduced by its August update
-
A Windows 11 update bug is breaking SSDs – here’s what you can do to prevent it
News Users first began reporting the Windows 11 update bug last week
-
What Thomas Dohmke’s departure means for GitHub
News Thomas Dohmke won't be replaced as CEO at GitHub, with remaining company execs reporting directly to Microsoft's CoreAI division.