Microsoft apologizes for widespread outage, explains what went wrong: ‘Deeply sorry’

A widespread outage hit Microsoft platforms including Outlook on Thursday. LiveNOW's Andy Mac has more.

The Details

Microsoft apologized after a widespread outage disrupted access to Outlook, Copilot, email and other cloud services, affecting thousands of users.

The company attributed the disruption to an earlier network capacity upgrade and a subsequent network change. Microsoft stressed that the issue was not related to cybersecurity or AI.

Microsoft said services were gradually being restored and that it would release a full post-incident report after completing its review. Delayed emails were given until at least Saturday afternoon to reach recipients.

Microsoft is speaking out one day after a widespread outage, which left thousands of users unable to access email and cloud tools.

Microsoft apologizes after widespread outage

What they're saying

Microsoft said the disruption involved an "elevated system load" after several servers went offline, overwhelming the remaining infrastructure.

"We are deeply sorry for the disruption this incident has caused our customers and partners," Microsoft said in a statement on Friday. "We know the trust they place in our services and take that responsibility extremely seriously. We are seeing broad recovery and stability across our services."

The tech company said the outage was related to a technical issue and not related to cyber security or artificial intelligence.

"The incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change. We have addressed the underlying issue and continue to restore service to remaining customers and regions," Microsoft continued.

The company said "given the scale of demand," they restored services gradually, validating stability at each stage.

In this photo illustration, an error message is shown when trying to access Microsoft's Outlook on November 12, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

"While this took longer, it helped ensure a stable restoration," they explained.

Microsoft said it will provide a full post-incident report once its review is complete.

Microsoft outage impacts thousands of users

The backstory

Earlier Friday, Microsoft reported improvements in mailbox access and the processing of delayed emails in North America. However, Outlook, Copilot and other workplace tools remained disrupted, with some users still experiencing intermittent issues.

Microsoft reports progress in restoring services after outage

The company also extended the delivery window for delayed messages, giving emails caught in the backlog until at least Saturday afternoon to reach recipients before being marked undeliverable.

The widespread outage began

Thursday. During earlier recovery attempts, some servers initially appeared healthy after returning to service but became unresponsive again once they began receiving traffic.

The Source

The information for this story was provided by Microsoft's X account. This story was reported from Los Angeles. Previous FOX Local reporting contributed.