Microsoft services restored after 24-hour outage:Company rules out cyberattack; Outlook, Teams and Copilot affected

All of Microsoft’s major services, including Outlook, Teams and Copilot, have now been restored after remaining down for more than a day. The company issued a statement on social media platform X on 13 November, apologising to customers and partners for the outage. Microsoft said the problem was not caused by a cyberattack or an AI agent, but by a technical flaw related to a network capacity upgrade. Company apologises, says customers’ trust is most important to it Microsoft said it regretted the inconvenience caused to customers and partners by the problem. The company acknowledged that the trust customers place in its services comes with a major responsibility, which it takes extremely seriously. The root cause of the problem has been fixed. However, work is continuing to fully restore services in the few customers and regions that are still affected. The ‘Microsoft 365 Status’ account, which provided regular updates during the outage, has also reposted the company’s statement. How the problem began: A technical glitch occurred during a network upgrade Microsoft revealed the cause of the outage for the first time, saying it began with a glitch during an earlier “network capacity upgrade”. The old technical problem resurfaced after another network change was made recently, affecting the entire system. The company has ruled out any external attack. Microsoft said, “This was a technical problem and had nothing to do with a cyber attack or AI/agents.” Why did recovery take so long: Services were restored in phases In the initial outage updates, Microsoft said automated health checks were failing on the affected machines and the secure-connection process was under excessive load. In the early stages, attempts were made to restart the servers and reroute traffic, but these brought only a slight improvement that did not last long. The company said that, given the heavy demand for its services, it restored them in phases instead of bringing everything back online at once. System stability was checked at each phase. The company acknowledged that this process took longer for recovery, but said it was necessary for a permanent and stable solution. Full details of the outage: Problem began on 12 November The technical problem began on 12 November. The outage directly affected Exchange Online. Services including Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint Online and Defender XDR were also affected. According to data from the outage-tracking platform ‘Downdetector’, around 1,30,000 complaints were recorded for Outlook alone when the problem was at its peak. In addition, more than 47,000 problem reports related to Microsoft 365 were reported. What next: Detailed report to be released after review Microsoft said that the entire incident is being reviewed. After the review is completed, the company will release a detailed ‘post-incident report’ to help prevent such technical glitches in the future. What is ‘Downdetector’? This is an online platform that provides real-time information on outages affecting major websites, apps and internet services worldwide. When an app experiences a problem, users visit the platform to file reports, helping show how widespread the issue is. What is a ‘post-incident report’? Major technology companies issue these reports after a major technical failure. They provide details of when the outage began, its actual technical cause, the steps taken to fix it and the changes made to the system to prevent it from happening again in the future. Also read this news related to Microsoft… Microsoft systems down, affecting Australia’s intelligence service and police: Government systems in Japan, banking in Hong Kong, courts in the Philippines and Indian airlines affected A technical glitch at Microsoft has affected the operations of major companies and government institutions around the world. Banking services in Hong Kong and intelligence and police services in Australia faced disruptions. Meanwhile, government systems in Japan and court operations in the Philippines were affected. Operations at schools and hospitals came to a standstill in several places. ​