Microsoft has warned users to prepare for a prolonged disruption to its services following a major global outage that has continued for more than 14 hours. The technology giant has reported early signs of stabilisation and improvements in service capacity, but cautioned that users may continue experiencing delays and interruptions as recovery efforts remain underway.

The extended recovery timeline has raised concerns among businesses and individuals relying on Microsoft's email and cloud-based services for their daily operations.

Microsoft Extends Email Timeout to 48 Hours

In its latest update, Microsoft said it had extended the email timeout period to 48 hours to help preserve delayed emails during the ongoing disruption.

The company stated that recovery efforts were continuing, with incremental improvements observed across several workloads. However, service performance remains inconsistent, and capacity has yet to return to normal levels.

Microsoft also confirmed that network and traffic-management measures remain active as engineers work to restore services fully.

Microsoft Shares Outage Update Under Incident Number MO1550821

Microsoft has acknowledged the impact of the outage and directed users to the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre for detailed updates under incident number "MO1550821.

Users can also track the progress of recovery efforts through Microsoft's official service status page.

The company said:

"We're seeing early stabilisation and capacity improvements as recovery actions continue. To help preserve delayed mail during this event, we've extended email timeout to 48 hours."

Microsoft further noted that service health remains variable and that capacity has not yet fully returned to baseline.

Microsoft Rules Out Cyberattack

Microsoft has reportedly ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack behind the global disruption.

Technology reporter Chris Vallance said Microsoft had indicated that there was nothing malicious about the incident.

He noted that previous outages affecting multiple services had generally resulted from internal technical problems rather than cyberattacks.

According to Vallance, there is currently no reason to doubt Microsoft's assessment that the disruption was not caused by malicious activity.

Users Await Complete Restoration of Microsoft Services

The outage has disrupted services relied upon by businesses, organisations and individual users worldwide.

Although Microsoft has reported gradual improvements, the company has warned that recovery remains incomplete.

Users are advised to monitor official service updates and remain prepared for continued email delays and interruptions until normal operations are fully restored.