Microsoft Extends Email Timeout to 48 Hours as Microsoft 365 Outage Drags On

what happened

Microsoft has pushed its email timeout to 48 hours so that delayed messages are not lost. The disruption, which hit Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services, continued into Friday. The company says recovery is proceeding in stages, although some services remain unstable.

According to Stocktwits, Microsoft (MSFT) shares were down 1.5% at the time of writing. In its latest status update, the company said it had made progress in the Asia-Pacific region, where part of the affected infrastructure has been restored. Microsoft also said it has seen no evidence of malicious activity. Downdetector logged more than 1,586 Outlook outage reports as of 5:51 a.m. ET on Friday, with problems reported in more than 70 countries.

why it matters

For investors, the length of the disruption matters as much as its scale, since prolonged outages can weigh on customer confidence in the company's cloud services. Stocktwits notes that retail sentiment on MSFT has shifted toward bearish. Per the same source, the shares have still gained about 6% so far in 2026.

market impact

Microsoft shares: the service outage adds short-term pressure on MSFT

• ▼Microsoft shares (MSFT) pressure down — the Microsoft 365 outage hits core services and raises customer risk concerns

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