By — Doug Jacobson, The Conversation Doug Jacobson, The Conversation Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/what-to-know-about-microsofts-outage-and-why-it-takes-so-long-to-restore-email-services Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter What to know about Microsoft's outage and why it takes so long to restore email services Science Nov 13, 2026 6:33 PM EST This article originally appeared on The Conversation. The Microsoft services outage that began on Nov. 12, 2026, is not like other internet outages. The failure affected the Microsoft 365 suite of productivity services, including the video conferencing and collaboration platform Teams, AI assistant Copilot and, significantly, the Outlook email service. Microsoft reported on Nov. 13 that the company is "continuing to see improvements in service availability" but that "some users may still experience intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery." Despite decades of predictions about its decline, email remains a central pillar of how organizations function. Password resets, invoices, legal notices and cybersecurity incident response coordination all depend on it. The Microsoft 365 outage affected businesses, governments and schools around the world. When most people think about cloud…
What to know about Microsoft's outage and why it takes so long to restore email services
In short
The operational failure began on Nov. 12, 2026, knocking out key workplace tools including Teams, Copilot, and Outlook. Although Microsoft observed service improvements the following day, users were warned of ongoing delays and intermittent connectivity issues. Recovery remains slow because outside platforms like Gmail hold messages during downtime and subsequently flood returning systems with queued traffic. Clearing this pent-up volume requires substantial processing time before standard transmission speeds can resume.
Key points
- Email restoration takes significantly longer than standard cloud recovery due to legacy s…: Email restoration takes significantly longer than standard cloud recovery due to legacy store-and-forward queuing architecture.
- Systems must process immense backlogs from outside servers before normal message delivery…: Systems must process immense backlogs from outside servers before normal message delivery speeds can fully return.
- Microsoft warned that users might still experience delayed emails and intermittent access…: Microsoft warned that users might still experience delayed emails and intermittent access despite reported service improvements.