On November 26, 2024, Microsoft announced that most Outlook and Teams services had been restored after a significant outage that affected users throughout the day. The company indicated that full restoration of services was expected to occur on November 27, following technical delays and user-reported issues.
- Microsoft restored most Outlook and Teams services.
- Full service restoration expected by Tuesday.
- Over 5,000 user-reported issues noted.
- Outlook on the web still affected for some.
- Recovery process slower than anticipated.
- Tech outages have global impacts this year.
The outage peaked with over 5,000 reported problems, according to Downdetector, although this number may not fully represent the total impact on users.
The outage caused significant disruptions for many office workers, with Microsoft confirming that functionality had been restored for most services except for Outlook on the web, which still impacted a small number of users. By Monday afternoon, the company reported progress after deploying a fix, leading to a sharp decline in outage reports on Downdetector. However, Microsoft acknowledged that the recovery process was slower than anticipated for many users.
At its peak, the outage affected a wide range of users, with Microsoft stating that the fix had reached approximately 98% of the impacted environments by noon. Despite this, reports of outages continued to rise as updates took time to propagate through customer systems. Microsoft later noted that it was still experiencing delays in recovery efforts, and as of 2 p.m. ET, it had not yet provided an estimated time for complete resolution.
This incident is part of a broader trend of significant tech outages this year, although Microsoft’s situation is not as severe as other recent incidents. For instance, a software issue from CrowdStrike over the summer was described as the largest IT outage in history, resulting in widespread disruptions across various sectors, including air travel and healthcare, and costing companies billions in losses.
In summary, Microsoft is actively working to restore full functionality to Outlook and Teams services following a significant outage. While most services have been restored, some users are still experiencing issues, and the company aims to resolve these by November 27.
