I haven't been able to send or receive any emails using the Outlook app since Microsoft went down. What are their announcements saying about the cause and the ETA for recovery?

Totbu Chan 40 Reputation points
2026-11-13T01:29:12.2933333+00:00

I haven't been able to send or receive any emails using the Outlook app since Microsoft went down. What are their announcements saying about the cause and the ETA for recovery?

Outlook | Windows | Classic Outlook for Windows | For business
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  1. Darren Bruce 2,610 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-11-13T01:33:51+00:00

    Dear Totbu Chan,

    I would like to share an update regarding the connectivity issue affecting multiple Microsoft 365 services.

    According to Microsoft's notification (Incident ID: MO1550821), users may be unable to connect to or access multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft Defender XDR.

    Microsoft has identified that the affected infrastructure is experiencing elevated load across multiple regions, which is likely contributing to the connectivity errors. Microsoft is currently restarting and repairing impacted portions of the infrastructure to restore capacity. Additionally, they are investigating an unexpected increase in a specific type of service traffic and evaluating options to redirect traffic to alternative infrastructure to expedite recovery.

    The incident is currently classified as Service Degradation, and Microsoft is actively investigating and working to mitigate the issue.

    If you have Microsoft 365 administrator privileges, please sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center using this link to view the details of this issue.

    If you don't know who the admin is in your organization, you can find guidance here: How can I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support    

    Alternatively, follow these steps: 

    • Sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
    • Go to Health > Service Health.
    • Search for Issue ID: MO1550821.
    • Select the issue and expand the details to review the latest updates, affected services, impact, and remediation information.

    User's image

    I'll continue to monitor this case and let you know if there is any update.

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  2. AI answer

    2026-11-13T01:30:05.66+00:00

    Microsoft’s latest public signals indicate that the November 12 Microsoft 365 outage was recovering or largely resolved, but Microsoft did not publish a firm restoration ETA.

    Cause and recovery status

    • The disruption was a broader Microsoft 365 service incident, with Outlook users among those unable to send or receive email—not an announced Classic Outlook for Windows defect. ^1^
    • Microsoft said it had taken steps to prevent additional servers from being affected while returning the affected servers to service. This identifies affected Microsoft-hosted servers and containment activity, but the public announcement did not provide a more detailed root cause. ^2^
    • The latest retrieved consumer status feed showed Microsoft 365 consumer services, including Outlook.com, as Operational, last updated November 12, 2026 at 19:31 UTC. ^3^
    • No concrete public Microsoft ETA was posted. Reports later showed outage volumes declining, consistent with a staged recovery rather than a single announced restoration time. ^4^

    Check the status for your business tenant

    Public status can differ from the incident state recorded for a particular organization. A Microsoft 365 administrator should open:

    1. Microsoft 365 admin center
    2. Health → Service health
    3. Check Active issues Microsoft is working on for Exchange Online or Microsoft 365.
    4. Open the incident to read Microsoft’s latest update, tenant impact, and any tenant-specific recovery estimate.
    5. If it is no longer active, check Issue history, which retains resolved incidents from the last 7 or 30 days. Service Support and Helpdesk administrators can also view this information. ^5^

    If Exchange Online is still marked degraded, Microsoft advises monitoring Service health rather than opening another service request because engineers are already handling the incident. ^6^

    If Service health shows recovery but Outlook still cannot send or receive, test the mailbox through Outlook on the web. Mail working there would indicate a remaining desktop-client synchronization issue rather than the continuing service outage.

    References

    1. Microsoft service health status
    2. Widespread Microsoft outage takes down Outlook and other 365 ... - CNBC
    3. status.cloud.microsoft
    4. Microsoft platforms including Outlook suffer widespread outages
    5. How to check Microsoft 365 service health
    6. Find and fix email delivery issues as a Microsoft 365 for business admin
    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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