Update: Thursday, November 12, 2026, 2:30 p.m. ET. A Microsoft 365 outage is currently preventing many users from accessing their Outlook mailboxes. If your email isn’t going through, the problem is not your computer or your network: it’s on Microsoft’s side.
What’s happening
Reports began climbing around noon ET on the outage tracker Downdetector, passing 129,000 around 1 p.m. Microsoft confirmed it is investigating issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas. The incident is tracked as EX1550543 in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Microsoft later added that the issue may affect Microsoft 365 service connectivity in any region. As of this update, Microsoft has not shared the cause or an estimated time to restore service.
Who is affected
Outlook on the web, desktop and mobile, for both personal and business accounts. Reports also mention Teams, Copilot and OneDrive, on a smaller scale.
What to do in the meantime
- Don’t reset your passwords or reinstall Outlook. It won’t fix anything and can complicate recovery.
- Be wary of “Microsoft” emails asking you to sign in again. Scammers often use outages to send fake sign-in links.
- For urgent communications, use the phone or another channel until service is restored.
- Leave Outlook open. Queued messages will send and arrive on their own once service is back.
UpSystems clients: how to reach us
You can message us directly through the Secured by UpSystems icon (the blue shield) in your computer’s taskbar: your message reaches us without going through email. You can also call us at (438) 888-5941. We’re following the incident and will update this page.
Sources
Variety, WKYT and WLKY, November 12, 2026, and the Microsoft 365 Status account.