A major Microsoft Outlook outage has disrupted email services worldwide, leaving thousands of businesses and individual users struggling to access their inboxes, send messages and use essential Microsoft 365 applications.
The disruption began on Thursday, November 12, 2026, affecting Microsoft’s Outlook email platform and spreading to other services, including Microsoft Teams, Copilot and parts of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
According to outage-monitoring platform Downdetector, nearly 130,000 problem reports were recorded shortly after 1 p.m. Eastern Time in the United States. Users reported difficulties loading emails, signing into accounts and accessing workplace applications. The reported figure represents user-submitted complaints rather than the total number of affected customers. AP News+1
What Caused the Microsoft Outlook Outage?
Microsoft initially identified unusually high infrastructure load as a contributing factor. Further investigation revealed that multiple servers had unexpectedly become unavailable, increasing pressure on the remaining systems.
Subsequent technical updates indicated that a server process responsible for secure connections was becoming overwhelmed, preventing some systems from responding to requests.
The disruption primarily affected Exchange Online, which supports email services for millions of Microsoft 365 customers.
The company has been restarting servers, redistributing network traffic and implementing configuration changes to stabilise its infrastructure. Mail Services+1
Outlook, Teams and Copilot Among Affected Services
Although Outlook experienced some of the most widespread problems, the disruption extended to several other Microsoft services.
Users reported difficulties accessing Microsoft Teams, Copilot, SharePoint and other workplace tools. Some organisations also experienced problems with email-dependent functions such as calendar access, meeting scheduling and file-related operations.
The outage affected businesses, educational institutions and government organisations across multiple regions, demonstrating the widespread dependence on Microsoft’s cloud services. TechCrunch+1
Latest Update: Is Microsoft Outlook Working Again?
Status as of November 13, 2026, approximately 3:30 PM Sri Lanka time
Microsoft has confirmed that recovery efforts are progressing, with improvements reported across several affected services. However, the outage has not yet been fully resolved, and some users may continue experiencing intermittent connection failures and delayed emails.
The company is gradually restoring affected infrastructure while prioritising the delivery of queued messages. Microsoft has also extended its email timeout window to 48 hours to help prevent delayed messages from being lost.
Importantly, Microsoft says it has found no evidence of malicious activity associated with the incident. The complete root cause remains under investigation. Mail Services
For businesses relying on Outlook and Microsoft 365, the disruption highlights the importance of having alternative communication channels available during unexpected service interruptions.
Users can monitor developments through the official Microsoft service status page.
While services are gradually recovering, Microsoft has not confirmed a time for complete restoration. The company says it will continue implementing fixes until normal operations resume.
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