What is the situation with the Outlook outage?

John Goodbody 0 Reputation points
2026-11-13T12:28:45.2833333+00:00

I've received no email for the last 16 hours or more... what's going on with Outlook?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
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  1. DaveM121 948.5K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-11-13T13:02:49.9866667+00:00

    Hi John,

    There is currently a world-wide outage affecting some Microsoft services, including Outlook, Hotmail, Clipchamp, Microsoft 365, Copilot, OneDrive... etc.

    This forum is just a user to user forum, no-one here knows when this huge outage will be resolve, Microsoft indicate they are working to resolve the server side problem that is causing servers to spike CPU usage, causing racks to go into maintenance mode and creating cascading failures

    There are some indications at the moment that some services are becoming accessible again.

    Also, some people indicate they can now access their Email on a mobile device, while it is still not working on a PC.

    You can monitor their progress on this link https://status.cloud.microsoft/ or on the Microsoft Twitter page: https://x.com/MSFT365Status/status/2120938282204688468

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  2. AI answer

    2026-11-13T12:29:35.1+00:00

    There are current reports of a broader Microsoft 365 mail disruption, but no Outlook.com-specific incident notice is confirmed here; check Microsoft’s live Service Health Status first before changing account settings.

    Check the incident status

    1. Open Microsoft’s Service Health Status site.
    2. Look for Outlook.com, Exchange Online, or an email-delivery advisory.
    3. If an incident is displayed, no local repair should be necessary—monitor that page and wait for Microsoft to mark it resolved.

    Public reporting says the November 12–13 disruption affects Microsoft 365 and Outlook-related services, while outage trackers show elevated user reports.^1^^2^ However, that does not establish that every Outlook.com mailbox is affected or confirm a separate consumer-service incident.

    If Microsoft reports the service as healthy

    A 16-hour gap may instead be mailbox-specific. Microsoft recommends checking the following:^3^

    1. Storage: If Microsoft cloud storage is full, Outlook.com cannot send or receive mail. Messages sent while it was full are bounced to senders and cannot be recovered.
    2. Focused Inbox: Check the Other tab.
    3. Junk Email: Review both the Junk folder and blocked-sender settings.
    4. Sorting: Select Filter → Sort → Date so recent messages appear first.
    5. Rules and forwarding: Check whether rules or forwarding are moving messages elsewhere.
    6. Account status: If there was a recent password change or unusual sign-in activity, the account may require verification or unblocking.
    7. Delivery test: Send a message to the Outlook.com address from another provider. If it fails, retain the sender’s non-delivery report because its error text helps identify whether the failure is storage-, filtering-, or server-related.

    If those checks do not resolve it, in Outlook.com select Help, enter the problem, scroll to Still need help?, and select Yes to contact Outlook.com support.^3^

    References

    1. Microsoft 365 and Outlook Outage, Nov 12, 2026: Timeline
    2. Microsoft Outlook down? Current problems and outages | US
    3. Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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