TL;DR
- What is down: Outlook and Exchange Online, with knock-on problems in Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Defender, Purview, Planner, To Do and Intune.
- Cause so far: Servers failed health checks, traffic shifted to the remaining servers, and those were overwhelmed. Microsoft has not named the initial trigger.
- Cyberattack: Microsoft says there is no indication of one.
- Status at 2 PM IST: Partial recovery for some users. No confirmed full restoration and no ETA.
- Incident IDs: MO1550821 (multiple Microsoft 365 services) and EX1550543 (Exchange Online mailbox connectivity).
If your Outlook inbox refuses to load this afternoon, you’re not alone. Microsoft 365 has been disrupted since Thursday night, November 12, and as of 2 PM IST on Friday, the company has not confirmed a full recovery or given a timeline. The trouble centers on Exchange Online, the engine behind Outlook email, and it is dragging other apps down with it.
Is Microsoft Outlook down in India?
Yes, as of 2 PM IST on Friday, Outlook is still disrupted for many users in India. People are reporting trouble signing in, opening their inboxes, and receiving email. Moneycontrol found that both Outlook on the web and the desktop app were largely inaccessible for affected users.
Downdetector shows the scale. India reports climbed to nearly 4,000 around 10 AM and eased to 2,634 by 12:07 PM IST, which is still well above normal. Of those, 40% involved the Outlook app, 23% involved receiving messages, and 21% involved logging in.
The problem is not confined to India. Downdetector logged roughly 130,000 Outlook-related reports at the global peak on Thursday [verify figure and timing before publishing].
Why is Microsoft 365 down?
Here is the short version: Microsoft lost server capacity, and what was left couldn’t cope. According to the company’s @Microsoft365Status account on X, several servers failed automated health checks and dropped out. Their traffic was pushed onto the remaining servers, which then struggled.
Microsoft says this was not a surge in users. The load increased because capacity decreased. It later identified a core process on the affected servers that became overwhelmed and stopped responding, further shrinking capacity.
The company is also checking whether recent infrastructure and network configuration changes played a part. It has not published a root-cause analysis, so the original trigger is still unknown.
Is this a cyberattack?
No evidence points that way. Microsoft says there is no indication of malicious or cyber activity, and a spokesperson repeated that to ABC News. The signs point to an infrastructure and availability problem. Until a final root-cause report arrives, treat that as the current position, not the last word.
Which Microsoft services are affected?
Outlook is the obvious casualty, but many apps rely on Exchange Online for specific features. That is why the list looks long. Being named in the incident doesn’t mean the whole app is down.
- Outlook and Exchange Online: Mailbox access through the web, desktop, and other methods may fail, and email delivery may be delayed.
- Microsoft Teams: Calendar access, meeting scheduling, and some organization-specific chat scenarios are affected. Microsoft says core messaging and online meetings remain largely functional.
- SharePoint Online and OneDrive: Features that depend on Exchange Online may be affected, but direct file access is not necessarily blocked.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot: Copilot Chat may not load or respond, and it may struggle to pull information from email, calendars, and files.
- Defender and Purview: Access to the Defender XDR portal, some Safe Links functions, and Purview features such as data loss prevention and auto-labeling have been disrupted.
- Planner, To Do and Intune: Expect unreliable task operations, loading problems in To Do and issues with some Intune functions.
Microsoft also lists Graph requests involving Exchange Online data, Fabric sensitivity labels, Power BI exports of labeled reports, and certain Windows 365 setups.
How is Microsoft trying to fix it?
There is no single switch to flip, so Microsoft is working on several fixes at once. It is restarting servers, applying configuration changes, and testing different health-check methods to bring servers back online. It is also redistributing traffic worldwide, temporarily restricting some traffic types in affected locations, and adding capacity.
Another tactic is isolating parts of the infrastructure, restarting components, and gradually feeding traffic back in. Recovery has been bumpy. Some servers stopped responding again after being returned to service, and earlier changes meant to help did not work as expected.
When will Outlook be back to normal?
Microsoft has not given a restoration time. Expect a gradual improvement as capacity returns and connections stabilize. For users in India, that means Outlook and some Microsoft 365 features may stay patchy even if they work for a while.
Don’t treat a working inbox as proof the outage is over. Microsoft’s consumer health entry was last updated at 4:24 AM UTC (9:54 AM IST) and the business entry at 5:46 AM UTC (11:16 AM IST). Those are update times, not confirmation of recovery.
What should you do right now?
- If you are an IT admin, track incidents MO1550821 and EX1550543 in the Microsoft 365 Service Health dashboard instead of relying on user reports alone.
- Expect delayed email and plan time-sensitive messages accordingly.
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