Microsoft extends email timeout to 48 hours during global service outage
The technology giant reported early stabilisation but warned that connectivity errors may persist across Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services.
A widespread outage affecting Microsoft platforms, including Outlook and Teams, has disrupted governments and organisations globally since Thursday, November 12, 2026, according to The Hindu. Nearly 1,30,000 users reported issues with Outlook on the outage tracker Downdetector shortly after 1 pm local time on Thursday.
Microsoft stated on X that a portion of its infrastructure was experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which likely contributed to the connectivity errors. The company has extended the email timeout period to 48 hours to help preserve delayed mail while recovery actions continue.
The disruption has impacted various entities, including the Supreme Court of the U.K., which reported it was not receiving emails. In Singapore, the Government Technology Agency said government emails were down and is working with Microsoft to resolve the issue.
European stock market operator Euronext advised listed companies on Friday, November 13, to use the telephone for urgent corporate communications due to email disruptions. The U.K.’s National Health Service is also facing email issues, according to The Guardian.
FOSS United CEO Sai Rahul Poruri told The Hindu that the incident highlights the need for India to decrease its reliance on external technology providers. He suggested that diversifying providers could support domestic micro, small and medium enterprises and the Make in India initiative.
Microsoft reported seeing incremental improvement in several workloads but noted that service health remains variable. Users can track updates through the Microsoft 365 admin centre under incident number MO1550821.