Outlook Down: What Happened in Microsoft's Global Outage and What to Do Now

Updated 13 November 2026, 3:30 pm IST. Outlook is down for millions of people around the world. Since Thursday afternoon US time, a major Microsoft outage has stopped many users from opening their mailboxes, sending email, or using Teams, OneDrive and Copilot. Here is everything we know so far: what happened, what caused it, who was hit, and what you can do right now.

The short version

• What: a worldwide outage of Exchange Online, the system behind Outlook email in Microsoft 365. Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Copilot and other apps were hit too.
• When: it started shortly before 1 pm Eastern Time on Thursday 12 November (about 11:20 pm in India) and was still going on Friday 13 November.
• How big: about 130,000 people reported Outlook problems on Downdetector at the peak.
• Why: Microsoft says a large number of its servers became "unexpectedly unavailable", which overloaded the rest. It is "not aware of any malicious activity", so this is not a known cyberattack.
• Status now: partial recovery. Microsoft reports "positive results" from a fix but has not said the outage is over.

Is Outlook down right now?

As of this update, Microsoft has reported partial recovery but no full fix and no timeline. The quickest ways to check the live status are:

• the official Microsoft 365 status page;
• the Microsoft 365 Status account on X, which usually posts updates first;
• if you are an IT admin, Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, which shows the incident details for your organisation. News reports list the incident as EX1550543.

If Outlook is not working for you today, the problem is almost certainly on Microsoft's side, not your computer or phone.

Timeline: how the outage unfolded

Which services were affected?

Exchange Online was at the centre of the outage. Because many Microsoft 365 apps depend on it, the problem spread. At different points Microsoft and news reports listed problems with:

• Outlook email on the web, desktop and mobile, and Outlook.com
• Microsoft Teams, mostly calendar features; core chat, calls and meetings largely kept working
• OneDrive, SharePoint Online and OneNote
• Microsoft To Do and Planner
• Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat
• Windows 365, cloud printing and mobile device management

Microsoft's Azure cloud platform was not affected, according to NBC News. AI tools that plug into Microsoft 365 broke as well: OpenAI and Anthropic both reported problems with their Microsoft 365 connectors.

What caused the Outlook outage?

Microsoft has not published its full root-cause report yet. It has promised a Post-Incident Report once the problem is fixed. Here is what it has said so far, in plain English:

1. Servers went missing. A "large number of servers" became "unexpectedly unavailable", and some failed Microsoft's automated health checks.
2. The rest got overloaded. Microsoft says the heavy load "isn't driven by an overall increase in traffic". The remaining servers had to carry the work of the missing ones.
3. A key process choked. On the affected servers, the process "responsible for establishing secure connections" became overwhelmed, so the servers stopped handling requests. That is why restored servers fell over again as soon as users came back.
4. A recent change is under suspicion. Microsoft said it was reverting "a recent network configuration change" that appeared to coincide with the start of the problem. It later patched an authentication and routing component, which is when stability started to improve.

Was it a cyberattack? Microsoft says it is "not aware of any malicious activity" behind the incident. Australia's Cyber Security Minister Tony Burke said Microsoft believed the situation was somewhat similar to the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, which was caused by a faulty update rather than hackers.

Who was hit around the world?

• United States: the House of Representatives said the outage affected its users. New York City Emergency Management warned of "delays or temporary disruptions" when contacting city agencies and asked residents to call 311 for non-emergency services. Several California government offices also reported disruptions.
• Japan: a shared government email network went down, and offices were told to switch to text messaging as an "emergency measure".
• Australia: businesses were brought to a standstill, patients lost access to telehealth and some distance-learning schools shut for the day. The government activated a cyber agreement with Microsoft to secure "appropriate prioritisation of Australian interests".
• United Kingdom: government engineers are working with Microsoft on the fix, Industry Minister Luke Pollard said.
• India: Air India temporarily rerouted its emails to keep receiving customer messages; its flights were not affected. IndiGo said its email support was affected and pointed customers to its website and app.
• Business and markets: Workhorse moved its quarterly results from 12 to 16 November, Richemont slightly delayed its results, and Microsoft shares were about 2.6% lower in pre-market trading on Friday.

Will I lose my emails?

Probably not. Microsoft says it is prioritising delayed email and has extended the delivery retry window to up to 48 hours. Mail sent to you during the outage should be held and delivered once your mailbox is reachable again, though some messages may arrive late or out of order.

If an important email bounces back to someone, ask them to resend it later or contact you another way.

What to do right now if Outlook isn't working

1. Check the status page first. If Microsoft lists an active incident, there is nothing to fix on your side.
2. Don't reinstall Outlook or reset your password. It won't help during an outage and can leave you with more to set up later.
3. Read what you already have. Outlook on desktop and mobile usually keeps a copy of recent mail on your device, so you can often still read and search older emails.
4. Write now, send later. Messages you send from desktop Outlook wait in the Outbox and go out when the connection returns. Check the Outbox once service is back.
5. Move urgent conversations elsewhere. Use phone, WhatsApp or another email account for anything that can't wait.
6. Watch out for scams. Criminals use big outages to send fake "verify your Microsoft account" or "your mailbox will be deleted" messages. Don't click links in messages like these, and never enter your password from a link in an email.

What businesses should do (and learn)

For many companies, this outage showed how much of the working day depends on a single provider. A few simple steps make the next one much less painful:

• Tell customers how to reach you. Put a short note on your website and social profiles with a phone or WhatsApp number, as IndiGo did with its website and app.
• Don't rely on email alone for leads. A website contact form that saves enquiries to its own database keeps working even when your mailbox doesn't, so no lead is lost.
• Turn on service health alerts. Microsoft 365 admins can get email notifications for incidents from the Service health page in the admin centre.
• Check the apps that send email for you. Invoices, OTPs and order confirmations sent through Microsoft 365 should queue and retry, or switch to a second email provider, instead of failing silently.
• Write a one-page outage plan. Decide who tells staff, where updates are posted and which tools people use instead.

No cloud service is 100% reliable, not even Microsoft. The businesses that cope best are the ones that planned for a bad day before it came.

Want systems that keep working when a provider goes down? Bitinfusion Technology builds business software and cloud systems with fallbacks built in: email queues with automatic retry, backup notifications by SMS or WhatsApp, and health alerts. See our SaaS and cloud development services or book a free call.

Frequently asked questions

Is Outlook down right now?

As of 3:30 pm IST on 13 November 2026, Microsoft reports partial recovery and improving stability, but it has not declared the outage over. Check the Microsoft 365 status page for the latest.

Why is my Outlook not working today?

A global Microsoft outage affecting Exchange Online, the service behind Outlook email. It is not a problem with your device or account.

Is Outlook.com (personal email) affected too?

Yes. Outlook.com was among the services with problems, alongside work and school Microsoft 365 accounts.

Is Teams down too?

Partly. Teams features that rely on email and calendars were hit, while core chat, calls and meetings largely kept working. By Friday morning UK time, Teams was mostly available again.

Was the Microsoft outage a cyberattack?

Microsoft says it is not aware of any malicious activity. Its updates point to servers becoming unavailable and a recent network configuration change.

When will Outlook be fixed?

Microsoft has not given a time. Its latest updates say a patch is showing positive results and is being rolled out to more servers. It will publish a full Post-Incident Report after the fix.

We will update this post as Microsoft shares more. For more tech news, read our roundup of the 7 AI trends everyone is talking about this month.

Sources

• NBC News: Microsoft services hit by major outage across the world
• CNBC: Widespread Microsoft outage takes down Outlook and other 365 services
• ABC News (Australia): Microsoft outage continues, disrupting Outlook, Teams for businesses and governments
• ABC News: Microsoft Outlook outage stretches on for hours
• ABC7: Microsoft outage live updates
• The Week: Five latest updates on the Microsoft Outlook outage
• PCQuest: Outlook goes down across India
• Outlook India: Microsoft 365 outage, recovery efforts and alternative fixes