Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services are coming back after a global outage that lasted about 18 hours. Microsoft still has no date for a full fix, and some users may still face delays. The outage began late on Wednesday night in India and hit 74 countries.
Updated: 14 November 2026, 10:00 IST
Quick Read
- Microsoft 365 services started to return on Friday after a global outage of nearly 18 hours. Microsoft says it has no ETA for full recovery yet.
- Recovery work is done in parts of Asia Pacific, and email queues are “significantly reduced and approaching normal”. Service health is still variable, Microsoft says.
- Microsoft stretched the email timeout from 24 to 48 hours to protect delayed mail. In India, IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India email support were hit, along with staff at big IT and consulting firms.
How the outage unfolded
The trouble began at about 11:30 PM IST on Wednesday 12 November. Outlook stopped working, Teams calls and chats failed, and Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant, went down too — along with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and OneDrive.
Outlook problem reports on Downdetector peaked at 138,058 at about 1:30 AM IST on Friday, then fell to about 34,490.
The outage touched 74 countries and territories, and in India thousands of users woke on Friday to find their inboxes would not open.
Also read: Outlook down worldwide as Microsoft 365 fails
Where recovery stands now
Microsoft says recovery actions are done across parts of Asia Pacific, with traffic gradually restored, and it has also reported progress in North America and Europe.
Email queues are “significantly reduced and approaching normal”, Microsoft 365 Status posted on X, though some users may still face delays.
There is still no date for a full fix. The Hindu’s live blog, updated 6:48 AM IST on Saturday, says Microsoft has given no ETA, and the mail backlog size has not been disclosed.
The 48-hour email rule
To protect delayed mail, Microsoft stretched its email timeout window from 24 to 48 hours, announcing the change at 2:56 PM IST on Friday 13 November.
In plain words: when a mail cannot be delivered, the system keeps trying. That time was one day; it is now two days.
After 48 hours, undelivered mail bounces back with error code 4.4.7, “Message expired”. If an important mail never arrived, check for a bounce, then send it again.
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The impact in India
India felt this outage hard: IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India all saw their email support hit, and staff at ABB, HPE, EY, Infosys, Accenture and Cognizant reported unstable connections, Business Standard reported.
Indian firms rescheduled meetings through Friday as mail and Teams stayed unreliable.
One gap: no India user numbers have been published anywhere we read, though “Outlook” was one of India’s top searches of the day, with 200,000-plus searches.
What Microsoft says broke
A number of its servers became “unexpectedly unavailable” after failing automated health checks, Microsoft says, and the work piled onto the servers that were left, causing the failures users saw.
Microsoft ruled out two things: the extra load was not a traffic surge, and there is no sign of a cyber attack. Charles Lamanna, a Microsoft executive vice president, said there was no indication of malicious activity.
The company paused all deployments and configuration changes, and started restarting servers and shifting traffic to healthy ones. No root cause has been confirmed yet; Microsoft tracks the incident under codes EX1550543 and MO1550821.
If your mail is still missing
First, wait. This is a server-side failure, so nothing on your phone or laptop caused it, and restarting your device will not fix it. Do not reset your password in a panic — it can lock you out of other apps.
Second, give the 48-hour window a chance — a mail sent during the outage may still arrive within two days. Only after that should you treat it as lost and send it again.
Third, check the status: Microsoft’s service health page, or your office admin centre, lists the incident under EX1550543 and MO1550821.
Fourth, keep a backup way to reach people: a phone call, a message app, or a personal email account for urgent mail.
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FAQ
Is Outlook fully back now?
Not fully. Services are returning and email queues are nearly back to normal, Microsoft says, but it has given no date for full recovery.
Will my delayed emails still arrive?
Most should. Microsoft stretched the email timeout to 48 hours; mail that cannot be delivered within 48 hours bounces back with error 4.4.7, “Message expired”.
Was this a cyber attack?
Microsoft says there is no sign of one. Its account is that servers failed health checks and the extra load broke the service. No root cause has been confirmed yet.
Desk-original added context
Our own recovery timeline, from the reports read today:
| When (IST) | What happened |
|---|---|
| Wed 12 Nov, ~11:30 PM | Outage begins; Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services fail |
| Fri 13 Nov, ~1:30 AM | Outlook problem reports peak at 138,058 on Downdetector |
| Fri 13 Nov, morning | Microsoft completes recovery actions in parts of Asia Pacific; traffic gradually restored |
| Fri 13 Nov, 2:56 PM | Microsoft stretches the email timeout from 24 hours to 48 hours |
| Fri 13 Nov, evening | India users begin receiving mail slowly; Outlook reports down to about 34,490 |
| Sat 14 Nov, 6:48 AM | The Hindu live blog closes; Microsoft still gives no ETA for full recovery |
Our own maths: 138,058 reports at the peak fell to about 34,490 by Thursday evening in the US — a drop of about three-quarters. The outage lasted about 18 hours from start to first broad recovery, one of the longest Microsoft 365 disruptions in recent years.
Sources
- The Hindu — Microsoft Outage updates: No ETA yet on full recovery, company says (14 Nov 2026, 200 verified; primary source)
- ET Now — Outlook returns after 18-hour Microsoft 365 outage; full recovery still pending (13 Nov 2026, 200 verified; Asia Pacific recovery, 48-hour timeout)
- News18 — Microsoft Outage Highlight: Recovery Work Continues As Microsoft 365 Services Return After 18-Hour Outage (13 Nov 2026; page loads — verified via search, curl returned 403 bot-block; India impact)
Sasanka Sekhar Pradhan is the founder of India Presents, an India-focused news site. He covers daily box-office trackers, India news, economy explainers, sports previews and festival guides — in simple English, so readers across India can follow fast-moving stories without jargon. His focus is what a story means for the reader: the number that matters, the source behind it, and what happens next. India Presents publishes daily, with day-trackers updated as new figures come in.
