Microsoft Outage Disrupts Outlook, Teams Worldwide
A global Microsoft service failure has blocked online crime reporting for Greater Manchester Police and affected users across several countries.
Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Data Centers
A global Microsoft outage that began late Thursday afternoon has disrupted Outlook, Teams, Copilot and some Microsoft Cloud services. Greater Manchester Police says it is not receiving crime reports submitted through its website, and advises callers with non-emergency reports to use 101 and emergencies to call 999.
Why it matters
The disruption shows how dependence on a single cloud provider can interrupt public services, including police reporting channels, as well as business email and collaboration tools. Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna said the outages did not appear to be a cyber attack.
Nearly 130,000 UK users reported Outlook issues at the outage's peak, with problems spanning Teams, Copilot, Outlook and some Microsoft Cloud services. Microsoft has not yet publicly identified the underlying technical cause of the failure.
The players
Microsoft
Microsoft is a US multinational technology company that provides cloud computing, productivity software such as Outlook and Teams, and AI services through Copilot.
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police is the police force serving the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in northwest England, which handles crime reporting for the region.
Charles Lamanna
Charles Lamanna is a Microsoft executive vice-president who publicly stated that the outages did not appear to be a cyber attack.
OpenAI
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research company that develops ChatGPT and related tools, and reported issues with Microsoft connectors affecting its services.
The details
Microsoft isolated parts of its infrastructure and shifted traffic to alternate routes to mitigate the problems. Servers were restored to operating status several times overnight UK time, but they repeatedly crashed, and OpenAI also reported issues with Microsoft connectors affecting its tools.
Timeline
Thursday afternoon (November 12, 2026): the Microsoft global outage began.
Friday (November 13, 2026): a Microsoft update restored servers, which then crashed again.
The Tech Race
Microsoft 365 is a cloud platform that many organizations rely on for email, collaboration and AI tools, so this failure tests the resilience of that single provider. The outage raises questions about how much critical public and business communication now runs through one vendor's infrastructure.
Users who rely on Outlook or Teams for work may have been unable to send or receive email and join meetings during the outage. Anyone needing to report a non-emergency crime in Greater Manchester should call 101 instead of using the online form until service is restored.
The takeaway
Organizations that depend on a single cloud provider for communication should plan fallback channels, such as phone lines or alternate email systems, for time-sensitive needs. Keeping published emergency and non-emergency contact numbers current helps the public report incidents when online systems fail.
Further reading
For background on the infrastructure behind cloud outages like this one, see Data Centers.
