Microsoft 365 Outage: What's Down and What You Can Do

Update, Saturday, November 14, 2026: Microsoft says the outage is resolved. In a post on its Microsoft 365 Status account at about 12:09 AM Central Time on Saturday, Microsoft said: "We have completed our efforts to address the underlying issue of the incident and restored service to the remaining impacted customers and regions." Its public service health page now shows the incident as "Service restored." Microsoft's final status note, posted at about 9:51 PM Central Time on Friday, says services across the previously affected environments have fully recovered and the backlog of email messages has been processed. That note lists the impact as running from about 4:05 AM Central Time on Thursday, November 12, to about 10:10 AM Central Time on Friday, November 13. Earlier Friday afternoon, at about 3:55 PM Central Time, Microsoft said it was monitoring for an extended period and making sure the email backlog fully processed before calling the issue resolved. Microsoft again says this was a technical issue, not related to cyber activity, and that it will publish a full post-incident report once its review is complete.

What to do now that service is back: If you sent an important email during the outage and later received a bounce (a "non-delivery" message), it is fine to resend it now. Otherwise, check with the other person before resending, so they do not get duplicates. If Outlook on a computer or phone still looks stuck, closing and reopening the app is usually enough. There is still no need to reset passwords or change security settings because of this outage, and any unexpected sign-in or "verify your account" request should be treated with caution.

Earlier update, as of about 10:40 AM Central Time on Friday, November 13, 2026: Microsoft says it is seeing broad recovery and stability across its services. It says this was a technical issue, not related to cyber activity or AI agents. According to Microsoft, the incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced after a recent network change. Microsoft says it has addressed the underlying issue and is continuing to restore service to remaining customers and regions. It restored service gradually, checking stability at each stage, and says it will publish a full post-incident report once its review is complete. Microsoft has not yet said the incident is fully resolved, so some people may still see delayed mail or intermittent access problems. Microsoft is not asking users to switch authentication methods during this outage. Number-matching push prompts (where you type the two-digit number shown on screen) only come through the Microsoft Authenticator app. If a sign-in request asks you to approve in a different app, install a new authenticator, or verify in a way that is not your normal method, treat it as a likely scam and do not approve it. Some organizations also use SMS codes or security keys; if that is your usual method, it is fine.

Earlier update, as of about 8:17 AM Central Time on Friday, November 13, 2026: Microsoft says service availability is continuing to improve and that email queues are significantly reduced and approaching normal levels. Some users may still have intermittent access problems or delayed email as recovery continues. Microsoft says it has put in additional mitigation measures, is restoring the remaining affected infrastructure, and is investigating residual service issues while it monitors service health and checks recovery across connection methods. The 48-hour email timeout window remains in place so delayed messages have more time to be delivered before they bounce. Microsoft has not said the incident is fully mitigated. Microsoft is not asking users to switch authentication methods during this outage. Number-matching push prompts (where you type the two-digit number shown on screen) only come through the Microsoft Authenticator app. If a sign-in request asks you to approve in a different app, install a new authenticator, or verify in a way that is not your normal method, treat it as a likely scam and do not approve it. Some organizations also use SMS codes or security keys; if that is your usual method, it is fine.

Earlier Friday morning, as of about 5:11 AM Central Time: Microsoft says recovery actions have been completed across portions of the affected infrastructure and that traffic is being restored gradually. It reported improvements in mailbox access and delayed email processing, though some intermittent issues may continue and capacity has not fully returned to normal. To help protect delayed mail, Microsoft has extended the email timeout window to 48 hours while it works through queues and backlogs (announced as of 3:24 AM Central Time and restated at 4:28 AM Central Time). That gives queued messages more time to be delivered before they expire and bounce. Microsoft still lists the incident as a service degradation and has not said when full service will return. Microsoft is not asking users to switch authentication methods during this outage. Number-matching push prompts (where you type the two-digit number shown on screen) only come through the Microsoft Authenticator app. If a sign-in request asks you to approve in a different app, install a new authenticator, or verify in a way that is not your normal method, treat it as a likely scam and do not approve it. Some organizations also use SMS codes or security keys; if that is your usual method, it is fine.

A global Microsoft 365 outage has been disrupting email and several other services since Thursday, November 12, 2026. Microsoft opened Exchange Online incident EX1550543 at about 10:17 AM Central Time (16:17 UTC). ThousandEyes first saw widespread Microsoft 365 failures around 11:30 AM Central Time (17:30 UTC). As of about 10:50 PM Central Time on Thursday, Microsoft still reported service degradation. Some regions had seen partial recovery, but Microsoft said those gains were not holding at that time.

The short version: Microsoft says the Microsoft 365 outage that began Thursday, November 12, is resolved. As of about 12:09 AM Central Time on Saturday, November 14, Microsoft said it had restored service to the remaining affected customers and regions, and its final status note says the email backlog has been processed. Microsoft traced the problem to an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced after a recent network change, and says it was not a cyberattack. Outlook and Exchange Online were the hardest hit, and Microsoft 365 Copilot, some admin tools, and some Defender features were also affected. If a message you sent during the outage bounced, resend it now. Do not reset passwords or change security settings because of the outage, and treat any unexpected sign-in request with caution.

Earlier short version (as of Friday, November 13): Outlook and Exchange Online have been the hardest hit. As of about 10:40 AM Central Time on Friday, Microsoft says it has addressed the underlying issue, which came from an earlier network capacity upgrade and surfaced after a recent network change, and it is seeing broad recovery. It is still restoring service to remaining customers and regions, so some people may still see delayed mail. Microsoft has extended the email delivery timeout to 48 hours to help keep delayed messages from bouncing. Microsoft 365 Copilot, some admin tools, and some Defender features have also been affected. Most Teams calls, meetings, and chats have still been working. This is not a cyberattack, according to Microsoft. Watch the official status page, use phone or text for anything urgent, and do not reset passwords or change security settings because of the outage. Microsoft is not asking users to switch authentication methods during this outage. Number-matching push prompts (where you type the two-digit number shown on screen) only come through the Microsoft Authenticator app. If a sign-in request asks you to approve in a different app, install a new authenticator, or verify in a way that is not your normal method, treat it as a likely scam and do not approve it. Some organizations also use SMS codes or security keys; if that is your usual method, it is fine.

What is affected

Microsoft is tracking the incident under IDs MO1550821 and EX1550543. ThousandEyes first saw widespread Microsoft 365 failures around 11:30 AM Central Time. Downdetector later showed a peak of nearly 130,000 to 140,000 reports, from users in 74 countries, according to The Guardian and BBC News.

Microsoft says features that rely on Exchange Online and email are the ones having trouble. In practical terms:

• Outlook and Exchange Online: Many people have been unable to open their mailbox in Outlook on the web, the Outlook desktop app, or mobile email. Microsoft also says email delivery may be delayed. As of Friday morning, Microsoft said mailbox access and delayed email processing were improving in some cases, though intermittent issues may continue.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot: Copilot Chat may not load or respond in the web and desktop apps, and Copilot may be unable to reach work email, calendars, and files.
• Teams: Microsoft says most core functions, including joining calls, meetings, group chats, and channel messages, are not impacted. Calendar scheduling, meeting invites and edits, live or virtual events, and some other Exchange-related Teams features may fail.
• SharePoint: Files stored directly in SharePoint Online remain accessible. Features that depend on Exchange Online may be impacted.
• Admin tools and device management: Some Microsoft 365 admin center pages may not load. Intune device enrollment, check-in, and compliance policies may have been affected intermittently.
• Microsoft Defender: The Defender portal may not load. Microsoft also says Safe Links and some other Defender for Office 365 features may fail.
• People may also be unable to see recently used files in Microsoft 365 apps.

What Microsoft says

As of about 10:40 AM Central Time on Friday, Microsoft said the incident was introduced by an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that surfaced following a recent network change, and that it has addressed the underlying issue. It says it will publish a full post-incident report once its review is complete. Earlier, Microsoft said a large number of servers became unexpectedly unavailable, failed automated health checks, and shifted load onto the remaining infrastructure. Later on Thursday evening, Microsoft said its investigation found that a process on the affected servers that establishes secure connections was becoming overwhelmed, which caused those servers to stop processing requests. It said it was testing a configuration change, restarting affected infrastructure, and reverting a recent network configuration change that correlates with the start of the impact.

Microsoft later said a fix was "not taking as expected," and that servers returned to service could become unresponsive again once they received traffic. In its update at 10:12 PM Central Time on Thursday, Microsoft said it was still adjusting traffic and had seen partial recovery in some regions, "however, these actions aren't resulting in sustained recovery." Charles Lamanna, Microsoft's executive vice president of Copilot, said there is "no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity."

Early Friday morning, Microsoft reported early stabilization, then said recovery actions had been completed across portions of the affected infrastructure and that traffic was being restored gradually. In its 5:11 AM Central Time update, it said mailbox access and delayed email processing were improving, though some intermittent issues may continue. It also said capacity has not fully returned to normal.

What to do now

1. Use what still works. If you use the Outlook desktop app, you may still be able to read messages that were already downloaded to your computer, even if you cannot send or receive new mail. Microsoft says files stored directly in SharePoint Online should still be reachable, and most Teams calls, meetings, and chats should still work.
2. For anything urgent, use the phone or text message. Do not count on new email arriving or going out until service is stable again. Microsoft says email delivery may be delayed.
3. Give delayed mail time to arrive. Microsoft has extended the email timeout window to 48 hours so queued messages have more time to be delivered before they bounce. If a message did leave your computer or phone, wait for that window to pass before resending, or you may create duplicates once the backlog clears. Messages that never left your Outbox should send on their own once Outlook reconnects.
4. Do not reset passwords or change security settings because of the outage. Microsoft says this is not an attack. Unexpected password-reset, "your account is locked," or sign-in prompts are more likely to be phishing that takes advantage of the news. Microsoft is not asking users to switch authentication methods during this outage. Number-matching push prompts (where you type the two-digit number shown on screen) only come through the Microsoft Authenticator app. If a sign-in request asks you to approve in a different app, install a new authenticator, or verify in a way that is not your normal method, treat it as a likely scam and do not approve it. Some organizations also use SMS codes or security keys; if that is your usual method, it is fine. If you already use Microsoft Safe Links, some rewritten links may also fail to open until that feature recovers.
5. Watch Microsoft's official status page at status.cloud.microsoft/m365, or the Microsoft 365 Status account on X. The Microsoft 365 admin center itself may not load. There is no need to change your own Microsoft 365 settings to try to fix this.

This incident is now resolved. As of about 12:09 AM Central Time on Saturday, November 14, 2026, Microsoft said it had restored service to the remaining affected customers and regions. Microsoft says a full post-incident report will follow.