The global outage of Outlook continues Friday, November 13, 2026. Disruptions affect Exchange Online messaging and several Microsoft 365 features, after a night of repair attempts. In its situation report published at 8:56 a.m. Beirut time, Microsoft still notes only limited progress. The group increases its capabilities with virtual machines and checks the application of its patches after restarting the servers.
The incident goes beyond inboxes. It disrupts professional exchanges, calendar functions and some administrative tools. US companies and Australian government agencies have announced concrete consequences for their operations. Microsoft did not announce a general recovery in this situation.
A Outlook Outage that’s been going on since Thursday
The Interchange Online follow-up sheet shows the beginning of the incident on Thursday, 12 November, at 1617 UTC, 1817 hours in Beirut. It remains classified as service degradation Friday morning. Two references follow the crisis: EX1550543 for messaging and MO1550821 for impact on other Microsoft 365 services.
The difficulties relate to several ways of accessing emails. Outlook on the web and desktop application may fail to open a box. Mobile connections and applications that use the exchange interfaces may also encounter errors. The delivery of messages may be delayed. Email systems installed in organizations can also be disrupted when trading with Exchange Online.
In the United States, problem reports increased sharply on Thursday. According to a news agency, Downdetector recorded a peak of about 138,000 reports about Outlook around 1 p.m. on the east coast. This statement measures the returns filed on this platform, not the total number of private couriers. Reports then decreased, without Microsoft confirming the end of the breakdown.
Restored servers, then unstable again
Microsoft first identified a loss of capacity: servers were becoming unavailable and were postponing their load on still active equipment. The group redistributed the connections and restarted the affected machines. He also suspended deployments and configuration changes during his research.
The return to service proved difficult. Some machines started to stop responding when they received traffic. The teams tested traffic restrictions, routing changes and the return to a recent network configuration. On Friday morning, they continued to stabilize the infrastructure and increase its capacity.
Microsoft states that it is unaware of any malicious activity that caused this incident. The final cause remains to be established. The group plans a post-occurrence report with the technical conclusions and prevention measures.
Teams isn’t entirely down
The consequences vary according to the applications and their functions. For Teams, Microsoft points out that calls, meeting attendance, group discussions and channel messages remain widely available. Difficulties include the functions related to Exchange: viewing a calendar, scheduling a meeting, sending an invitation or changing an appointment.
Copilot may not respond or access work data. Planner and To Do also face difficulties. Some administration screens and protection or compliance functions are affected. On the other hand, Microsoft indicates that access to files stored directly in SharePoint Online remains functional.
Consequences already announced by organizations
In Australia, the Meteorological Office issued a notice Friday, 13 November. The organization warns that its clients and journalists may not be able to reach it by email. It directs them to the phone and specifies to be in contact with Microsoft.
The Bureau points out that its forecasts and alerts are not affected. They remain accessible on its site and in the BOM Weather app. The announced disturbance therefore concerns its electronic communications, not the broadcast of its weather warnings.
In the United States, Workhorse Group postponed the presentation of its quarterly results. The company was scheduled to hold its conference on Thursday 12 November at 4:30 p.m. East Coast time. She moved it to Monday, November 16, at the same time, explicitly citing the disruptions caused by Microsoft’s global breakdown. Its outcome statement is due to be issued before this conference.
Microsoft continues its regional repairs. The provision of servers is not yet enough: teams must check their stability when user connections resume.
Comments