Microsoft Admits Outage Fix 'Is Not Taking as Expected' Amid Global Service Outage

Microsoft said its attempts to fix a global service outage were 'not taking as expected' on 13 November 2026, as disruption spread across UK public services.

The BBC reported the admission, saying Microsoft was testing alternative ways to restore access without overwhelming its systems. The company had warned that services brought back online could become unresponsive again when traffic returned.

There were later signs of progress. In a 07:59 GMT update, the BBC reported that Microsoft was seeing 'positive results' in service stability and capacity, and was extending its recovery measures across affected regions.

Recovery Advances, but Services Remain Unreliable

Microsoft's status update, timestamped 10:01 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), described a phased recovery across its affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure. Monitoring data and customer reports indicated improvements across several services, although performance remained inconsistent and capacity had yet to fully recover.

The disruption affected Microsoft 365 features dependent on Exchange Online and email services. Microsoft said features operating independently of Exchange Online remained functional.

To protect delayed emails during recovery, the company prioritised clearing delivery queues and backlogs. It also extended the email timeout window to 48 hours to help preserve messages awaiting delivery.

Microsoft said it had found no evidence of malicious activity associated with the incident. It pledged to publish a full report explaining the root cause and additional protective measures once mitigation work was complete.

Councils Lose Email and Referral Access

Worcestershire County Council said it could neither send nor receive emails, although its telephone services, forms and other systems remained operational.

The outage also affected its Adults and Children's Liquid Logic portals because users could not receive the emails required to authenticate their logins.

For urgent referrals, the council directed residents to telephone its Adult Front Door team on 01905 768053, adult safeguarding on 01905 843189, or children's safeguarding on 01905 822666.

West Sussex County Council reported problems with emails and other systems. Its telephone lines remained open, although it warned that some services might be unavailable and asked residents awaiting responses to allow additional time.

The council also urged people to share the announcement with anyone who might otherwise miss it.

Meanwhile, City of Doncaster Council said its emails were responding very slowly and that staff would respond to requests as soon as possible.

Health Services, Schools and Parliament Affected

The BBC reported disruption involving health services and schools, with one general practitioner (GP) warning of major problems for the National Health Service (NHS).

Schools asked parents to telephone rather than email, while the UK Parliament said it had put alternative communication arrangements in place.

The Insolvency Service separately confirmed on 13 November that the worldwide outage had disrupted incoming and outgoing emails and affected its Adjudicator Office service.

Its telephone lines remained operational. People with urgent enquiries were advised to call 0300 678 0015.

Thousands of Reports Highlight Communication Risks

The BBC said Downdetector received at least 43,000 reports of Outlook problems across 72 countries at around 07:00 a.m. These represented reports submitted to the monitoring website, rather than a verified count of affected users.

Microsoft had not disclosed the total number of affected users, according to the broadcaster.

Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity adviser at ESET, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the disruption demonstrated why organisations needed contingency plans for communicating during service outages.