Large-Scale Microsoft 365 Outage Progressing Toward Recovery Due to Technical Issues

Key points

In the early hours of November 13, 2026, a global outage occurred in Microsoft 365, rendering multiple services such as Outlook, Teams, Exchange, Copilot, and SharePoint unavailable. The outage also affected Japan's government information system infrastructure and services of NTT East Japan. Microsoft denied the possibility of a cyberattack and explained that the cause was technical issues. Recovery work is progressing in stages, but full restoration is expected to take additional time. [1] [2] [3]

Occurrence and Impact of the Large-Scale Microsoft 365 Outage

In the early hours of November 13, 2026, a large-scale outage occurred in Microsoft 365, causing worldwide connectivity issues across multiple services including Outlook, Teams, Exchange, Copilot, and SharePoint. Japan's government information system infrastructure was also affected, impacting the Government Solution Service (GSS), which provides common computers and communication network environments for the government. Additionally, services and reception/inquiry lines such as 116 and 113 operated by NTT East Japan were impacted. [1] [2]

This outage affected over 70 countries worldwide, including corporations and government agencies, causing significant disruptions to operations. Masanao Ozaki, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Japanese government, acknowledged the impact during a press conference and stated that recovery efforts are being closely monitored. NTT East Japan also acknowledged the impact on its official X (formerly Twitter) account and apologized to users. As a result, many public services and corporate operations were temporarily suspended. [2]

Timeline from Outage Detection to Recovery

Microsoft announced the outage on X (formerly Twitter) around 3 a.m. on November 13, 2026. Gradual improvements began after 6 p.m., and by shortly after 8 p.m., some infrastructure recovery work was completed, with communications progressively restoring. However, Microsoft explained that full recovery would still require more time. Recovery efforts are being conducted in stages, with the possibility of intermittent issues continuing. [1] [4]

Microsoft has been restarting multiple servers and adjusting communication routing to stabilize services incrementally. Although recovery efforts temporarily regressed at times, the overall trend has been toward improvement. No timeline for complete restoration has been provided yet, and work continues. Users have been informed that intermittent problems may persist. [2]

Cause of the Outage and Microsoft's Response

Microsoft explained that the large-scale outage was not caused by a cyberattack or AI-related issues but was due to technical problems during a network capacity upgrade. Specifically, issues that arose during a previous network capacity upgrade surfaced due to recent network changes. A spokesperson for Microsoft's Japan branch also stated that no facts suggesting a cyberattack have been confirmed. Microsoft apologized and is proceeding with recovery work in stages while addressing the root cause of the problem. [1] [2] [3] [5]

Microsoft announced that recovery work on some affected infrastructure has been completed and communications are gradually restoring. The recovery is being conducted carefully while confirming stability. Full restoration is expected to take more time, and intermittent issues may continue. Microsoft expressed deep apologies for the outage and indicated its commitment to restoring trust. [1] [5]