Microsoft 365 Outage
Many people still cannot reach their Outlook and Exchange Online mailboxes. Microsoft says Teams is working again and that it is moving traffic away from failing servers worldwide. Microsoft has not confirmed a cause or given a time for email to be fully restored.
Last updated Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 3:15 PM Eastern. Started Thursday, November 12, around midday Eastern.
Affected services
Outlook and Exchange Online email
Still affected. Mailboxes fail to connect or load, in the desktop app, on the web and on phones. Problem reports have dropped from their peak but have not stopped.
Microsoft Teams
Restored. Microsoft says its fixes brought Teams back to normal, and most people who reported trouble say it works again.
Copilot and other Microsoft 365 apps
Scattered reports of problems that are likely tied to the same event.
This is Microsoft's outage. Nothing is wrong with your computer, your network or your account.
What to do now
Pick up the phone for anything urgent
Call clients, vendors and coworkers directly for time-sensitive matters until email is back.
Work from what Outlook already downloaded
The Outlook desktop app usually keeps recent mail and your calendar on your computer. You can read it even while the connection to Microsoft is down.
Try another way in
If one fails, try the others: Outlook on the web at outlook.office.com, the Outlook phone app, and the desktop app. Some people get through on one while another fails.
Expect delayed mail, not lost mail
Mail sent to you during an outage normally waits on the sender's server and arrives once Microsoft recovers. Messages you send may sit in your Outbox and go out on their own later.
What not to do
Don't reset your password
Your password is not the problem. Resetting it during an outage can lock you out after the service comes back.
Don't reinstall Office or rebuild your Outlook profile
Nothing on your computer is broken. Rebuilding Outlook throws away the mail it has stored locally, which may be the only copy you can reach right now.
Don't trust "fix your account" emails, texts or calls
Scammers use big outages as cover. Microsoft will not email or call you to fix this. Never enter your password from a link that arrives today.
Timeline
Times are Eastern, newest first.
By 3:00 PM
Microsoft says Teams is restored. Outlook and Exchange Online email is still affected, and Microsoft says it has finished spreading connection traffic across its servers worldwide and is moving more traffic off the affected ones.
By 2:45 PM
Microsoft says the strain comes from servers that unexpectedly went offline, not from extra traffic. It has paused all deployments, restarted the affected servers and moved traffic off them.
By 2:15 PM
Microsoft says it is restarting and repairing the affected infrastructure and looking into an unexpected rise in one type of traffic.
2:05 PM
Microsoft says the issue may affect Microsoft 365 connectivity for users in any region, and that a portion of its infrastructure is under elevated load across multiple regions.
1:00 PM
Outage reports for Outlook pass 100,000 on Downdetector.
Midday
Microsoft confirms it is investigating reports of users unable to reach Exchange Online mailboxes in the Americas.
Live status sources
- Microsoft 365 status page: Microsoft's public page for service-wide problems.
- Microsoft 365 Status on X: Microsoft usually posts updates here first.
- Downdetector for Microsoft 365: Live counts of user problem reports. A falling count is often the first sign of recovery.
- Downdetector for Outlook: The same reports for Outlook alone.
- For IT administrators: Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center lists this event as
EX1550543andMO1550821andTM1550488 (Teams).
Mid Florida IT clients: we're watching this for you
We'll confirm your systems are working once the service recovers. If something still isn't working after the all-clear, call us.