Is Outlook down? What to do while Microsoft fixes it

Is Outlook down right now?

Many people cannot reach Outlook right now. The service stopped working in November 2026, and the outage carried into the next day. News outlets reported a large spike in outage reports around midday Eastern time. Reports fell from that peak, but many people still could not send mail or open their inbox the next morning. Microsoft said its latest fix was showing progress, though it gave no time for a full return to normal.

The fastest way to check is Microsoft's own status page. Search for Microsoft 365 Status and open the page Microsoft runs itself. It lists each service and whether it is working. Microsoft also posts updates from its @MSFT365Status account on X. If the status page shows no active incident and few people are reporting trouble on Downdetector, the fault is probably yours. Check your own connection, restart the app, and try again.

Do not trust a random post that claims the outage is over. Outages end in stages, and one city can be back while another is still down. A post from a stranger, a forwarded message, or a video promising a fix is not proof. Trust the status page and the verified account. If both say the incident is still open, it is still open for you too.

What happened to Outlook

The trouble started around midday Eastern time. Outage reports spiked through the early afternoon, and Microsoft soon confirmed it was looking into problems reaching work mailboxes. The problem was already bigger than one region. Microsoft said soon after that users in any region could be affected.

Microsoft first blamed heavy load on its servers. It said part of its infrastructure was under elevated load across several regions and started moving traffic elsewhere. Then the picture changed. Microsoft paused all deployments and said the load came from servers being unexpectedly unavailable, not from extra traffic. A large number of servers had failed automated health checks and dropped out. Those checks are the routine tests that confirm a server is fit to serve mail. When a server fails one, it is taken out of service.

Microsoft spent the afternoon trying to bring the servers back. It said it was testing a configuration change for the servers that failed their checks while restarting the affected machines. Later it said it had taken steps to stop more servers from being affected. It promised more updates as the work went on. Microsoft included incident reference numbers in its admin center updates for workplaces tracking the fault.

Which Microsoft services are affected

Outlook took the worst of it, because Outlook is how most people reach their work mail. The outage hit Exchange Online, the cloud service that stores and delivers that mail. When Exchange Online is down, Outlook on your computer, your phone and the web all fail the same way. You can open the app and see old messages, but nothing new arrives and nothing you send leaves. That is the clearest sign the fault is on Microsoft's side rather than yours.

The same fault reached the rest of Microsoft 365. Microsoft listed Teams, SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 Copilot among the services that could be affected. Users also reported trouble with OneDrive. Teams chats and meetings stopped connecting for many people. Files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive would not open or sync. Copilot, the AI helper inside Microsoft's apps, was affected too. The common thread is Exchange Online: many of these services lean on it for mail, sign-in and sharing.

The outage spread beyond offices. News outlets reported that companies and some government operations were affected. In Japan, a government official said the outage had affected government IT systems. In Australia, the home affairs minister said Microsoft had compared the outage to the CrowdStrike outage of 2024. One American company delayed a call about its quarterly results because staff could not reach their mail. Schools, airlines and small firms all felt it the same way: the inbox simply stopped.

What to do if your Outlook is down

Start by confirming it is Microsoft, not you. Open the Microsoft 365 Status page and look for Outlook and Exchange Online. If the page lists an active incident, wait. There is nothing on your computer to fix. Restarting your router, reinstalling Outlook or changing your settings will not bring a server back. Save that effort for a day when the status page is clear.

Try another way in before you give up on the day. Outlook on the web, at outlook.com, sometimes works when the desktop app does not. The Outlook app on your phone may also connect, because it can take a different route to the same mailbox. If one of them loads, use it for the urgent messages and leave the rest. Do not delete your account from the app and add it again. Setting it up again during an outage can fail halfway and leave you with no account at all.

Tell anyone waiting for an urgent reply that Outlook is down and use another channel instead. A phone call or a text reaches them now. Keep a note of what you sent and when, so you can check later that it arrived. Anything still sitting in your outbox after the fix did not go out, so send it again. The waiting is the hard part, and no setting on your side shortens it.

1. Check the Microsoft 365 Status page for Outlook and Exchange Online.
2. Try Outlook on the web at outlook.com, or the Outlook app on your phone.
3. Use a phone call or a text for anything urgent.
4. Do not delete your account from the app or reinstall Outlook.
5. Wait for Microsoft to confirm the fix, then check that your sent mail arrived.

Watch out for outage scams

An outage is prime time for scammers. Security vendors warn that fake messages appear within hours of a big outage. People who cannot reach their mail start to wonder if something is wrong with their account. A message that offers a fix suddenly looks believable. That is the moment a scammer wants. The outage itself is not a hack, but the confusion around it opens a door.

The usual trick is a message that pretends to be Microsoft. It may arrive as an email or a text. It says your account needs to be restored or signed in again, and it links to a page that looks like Microsoft's sign-in screen. The page steals the password you type. Another version poses as support staff and gives you a phone number to call. The person who answers asks for your password, a verification code or a payment. Microsoft does not fix outages by texting you a link.

The rule is simple: never sign in through a link that arrived during the outage. Go to Microsoft's status page or the verified @MSFT365Status account yourself. Ignore any message that demands an urgent fix, a download or a payment. If you already clicked a link or typed your password, act at once. Change your Microsoft password from Microsoft's own site, turn on two-factor authentication, and check your recent sign-in activity. Change the password anywhere else you reused it.

Myths you can ignore about the outage

The first myth is that the outage means Outlook was hacked. It does not. Microsoft has said nothing to suggest an attack. It has pointed to servers failing automated health checks, and no group has claimed responsibility. News outlets reported the same: no indication of malicious activity. Microsoft also blamed internal technical problems, not attacks, for its January and August outages this year. A server fault is the dull explanation, and here it is the one the evidence supports.

The second myth is that your mail is gone. It is not. Mail already in your inbox is still stored on Microsoft's servers. The problem is reaching it, not keeping it. Nothing in Microsoft's updates suggests data was lost. Check your sent folder after the fix.

The third myth is that resetting your password or reinstalling Outlook will fix it. Neither will. A password reset only helps if someone stole your password, which an outage alone does not do. Reinstalling the app only helps if the app itself is broken, and the app is fine. Both moves waste your time and can make things worse. A fresh install during an outage may fail to sign in at all. Wait for the status page to clear, then check your mail as normal.

Quick answers

Is Outlook still down?

When this was written, Microsoft had not declared the outage over. Its latest fix was showing progress, and Teams was restored in North America. Check the Microsoft 365 Status page for the current state.

Was the Outlook outage caused by hackers?

No evidence points that way. Microsoft says servers failed automated health checks, and it has found no indication of malicious activity. No group has claimed responsibility.

Will my emails arrive after the outage?

Messages you sent may sit unsent until service returns. Once Outlook is back, check your sent folder. Anything still sitting there did not go out, so send it again.

Should I reset my password after the outage?

Only if you clicked a suspicious link or typed your password on a page that arrived by message. Otherwise a reset changes nothing, because the fault was on Microsoft's servers, not your account.

Is my Outlook data safe?

Microsoft has given no sign that mail was lost. The fault stopped people reaching their mail, it did not delete it. Your old messages should still be there once access returns.