Microsoft service disruption hits Australian workplaces

Australian businesses and government agencies were left unable to access email and connected systems during a Microsoft outage on 13 November 2026. Microsoft said it was investigating connection difficulties across its Microsoft 365 services, with Exchange Online the main focus.

Outlook problems generated more than 4,400 reports on Downdetector Australia by 8.20am. Some users said they also could not enter other services because the email disruption left them without the two-factor authentication codes needed to sign in.

The home affairs minister's spokesperson confirmed that Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, the National Cyber Security Coordinator, was examining the disruption. Microsoft identified Teams and SharePoint among the services users might have difficulty accessing.

Microsoft said a service-health monitoring component might be linked to servers becoming unresponsive. Recent configuration changes were also under investigation as potential contributors.

An alternative health check had helped restore some machines, Microsoft said. The company was expanding its use and developing automation to find and restart stalled servers. Its 8.41am AEDT update said restarts and checks were continuing before affected machines resumed service.

University of Melbourne associate professor Adel Toosi said reliance on a small number of large cloud providers could reduce costs through economies of scale, but left less redundancy when errors occurred. Geographically dispersed data could still be vulnerable to flaws within a provider's systems, he said.