Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft 365 services went down around the world on Thursday, November 12, 2026, and stayed patchy for more than a day. On Friday, Microsoft said email queues were "significantly reduced and approaching normal levels". If your inbox still looks empty, wait before you resend anything. Microsoft extended the email timeout window to 48 hours, so delayed messages should still arrive.
What happened
The outage started around 1pm ET on Thursday. Reports on Downdetector peaked above 130,000 for Outlook in the US. Microsoft's consumer update listed Outlook.com, OneDrive, OneNote, Microsoft To Do, Teams and Microsoft 365 for the web as affected, and said other Microsoft 365 services could show problems too.
It was not a hack. Microsoft said: "This was a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents." The company explained the problem came from an issue during an earlier network capacity upgrade that showed up after a recent network change. It brought servers back slowly, checking stability at each stage, which is why the fix took so long. Microsoft has promised a full post-incident report once its review is done.
How to check if Outlook is still down for you
- Open the Microsoft 365 status page at status.cloud.microsoft. During the outage this page itself stopped loading for a while, so also check the @MSFT365Status account on X.
- If you use Outlook at work or school, ask your IT team. Admins can follow incidents EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Look at Downdetector if you want to see what other people report. Keep in mind these are user reports, not official data, and people often blame the wrong service.
- Try Outlook on the web at outlook.com and in the app. If one works and the other does not, the problem is most likely on your device or app.
What to do while your email catches up
- Don't resend everything. Messages sent during the outage were held, not deleted. Resending now can leave the other person with two or three copies.
- Let the app reconnect. Microsoft warned that "users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect". Close Outlook fully and open it again, or sign out of the web version and back in. Then give it time. Mail can come back in chunks.
- Pick up the phone for urgent things. Big companies did exactly this. Euronext told listed companies to call, and Maersk asked customers to phone with anything urgent.
- Check your Sent and Outbox folders. Once things are stable, see if anything is stuck in the Outbox. Only resend what never left.
Watch out for outage scams
Scammers love a big outage. You may get texts or emails saying you need to reset your password or click a link to "restore" your Outlook account. Microsoft won't ask you to do that. Don't click those links. If you're worried about your account, type outlook.com into your browser yourself and sign in from there.
The same goes for messages that claim to come from a company you deal with. Maersk told customers to check any unexpected message about the outage with their local contact first. That's good advice for everyone.
Quick answers
Will I lose emails sent during the Outlook outage?
Most likely not. Microsoft said it extended the email timeout window to 48 hours to protect delayed messages. They may just show up late, and sometimes all at once.
Was the Microsoft outage a cyberattack?
No. Microsoft said it had no evidence of malicious activity and called it "a technical issue not related to cyber or AI / agents", linked to a network capacity upgrade.
Is Outlook working again?
For most people, yes. By Friday, November 13, Microsoft reported "broad recovery and stability" across its services, and Teams meetings and chats were back earlier than email. Some users may still see delays while the backlog clears. If you still can't get in, check the status page before you change any settings.