Microsoft 365 Outage Disrupts Outlook and Teams Across the Americas

Thousands of users across the Americas experienced widespread disruptions to Microsoft 365 services on Thursday, 12 November 2026, with email application Outlook and workplace communications platform Teams facing severe operational issues. The outage left thousands of users unable to access corporate mailboxes or send messages during business hours.

According to data compiled by monitoring website Downdetector, reports of service failures spiked around 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. Over 130,000 incident reports were submitted for Outlook in the United States alone. In addition, Downdetector recorded more than 46,000 reports concerning the broader Microsoft 365 suite, while approximately 3,000 users logged problems accessing Teams. Disruptions were also noted for Copilot, Microsoft's artificial intelligence assistant tool.

The technology group confirmed through updates on X that it was investigating issues preventing users in the Americas from connecting to Exchange Online mailboxes via various access methods. Microsoft later specified that an infrastructure segment was operating under a higher load than normal, which had caused widespread connection failures. To address the bottleneck and restore system connectivity, the company announced it had begun rerouting user traffic across its broader network infrastructure.

Earlier on Thursday, Microsoft stated that it had resolved initial connectivity problems affecting Teams in North America, although individual connection issues persisted for some subscribers. The company has not supplied a final total of affected user accounts, noting that self-reported metrics from platforms like Downdetector do not reflect the full scope of impacted users. Engineers are continuing load-balancing measures to ensure full service restoration across the affected regions.

Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com