Microsoft Outlook Outage Enters Second Day as Fixes Show Progress

Microsoft is still working to restore Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services after a widespread outage that began Thursday afternoon. However, “early stabilization and capacity improvements” are being reported by the company.

Overnight, Microsoft’s engineers have been working to resolve the issue affecting Outlook, which has left users worldwide unable to access email and workplace applications. The problems began around 1 PM ET on November 12, with users reporting difficulties accessing Outlook through web browsers and mobile applications.

The disruption has continued into today, although Microsoft says its latest recovery efforts are showing encouraging results. The company has begun seeing improvements in server stability after deploying additional fixes. However, Microsoft has not confirmed that services are fully restored.

We’re seeing early stabilization and capacity improvements as recovery actions continue. To help preserve delayed mail during this event, we’ve extended email timeout to 48 hours. A more comprehensive update can be found at MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center, as well as https://t.co/bVoAAh3D2G if the admin center is not available to you.

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 13, 2026

As previously reported, the outage also affected Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Copilot and other services connected to Microsoft 365. Outage tracker Downdetector recorded nearly 130,000 reports involving Outlook in the United States shortly after disruptions began.

Microsoft initially identified elevated infrastructure loads across multiple regions as a possible contributor to the connectivity problems. The company subsequently discovered that some affected servers became unresponsive again after receiving traffic, complicating recovery efforts. Engineers have since introduced additional changes intended to stabilize servers and restore capacity.

Microsoft says those changes are producing positive results, although service interruptions may continue while recovery work progresses. Most recently, the company stated, “We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure.”

The outage has affected businesses, government organizations and individuals who depend on Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure for everyday communication. Users experiencing problems can monitor the official Microsoft 365 service status page for updates.

For now, Microsoft has not provided a definitive timeline for complete restoration, leaving affected customers waiting for normal access to return.