Updated Friday, November 13, 2026, 8:30 a.m. ET
Microsoft 365 services are coming back. More than a day after the Microsoft 365 outage began, Microsoft says it is seeing “encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving” across a growing portion of the affected infrastructure (Windows Central).
Here’s the latest rundown, and what to do while recovery continues.
Microsoft 365 outage: the latest
- Recovery is spreading. After restoring traffic first in Asia-Pacific (ABC News), Microsoft’s service health dashboard now reports “broader improvements” in North America and “sustained improvements across much of Europe” (TechRadar).
- Outlook down reports are falling. Downdetector problem reports are trending down from a peak of more than 130,000, though thousands of users are still reporting issues.
- Some issues may linger. Microsoft says some users “may still experience intermittent issues,” and clearing the email backlog is a priority.
- Delayed email should arrive. Microsoft’s extended 48-hour email timeout window remains in place, so delayed messages may land in bursts as the backlog clears.
- No root cause yet. Microsoft has not published a root cause, and says there is no indication the outage was the result of malicious or cyber activity. Microsoft 365 admins can follow incident MO1550821 in the admin center.
What to do right now
- Give it time. Let Outlook and Teams resync before reinstalling Office, deleting profiles or resetting passwords.
- Triage the backlog. Work through delayed email newest-first, and flag anything time-critical.
- Watch for fake “fixes.” Scammers are targeting people returning to Outlook with fake password-reset and account-restore messages (TechRadar). Here’s how to spot Microsoft outage scams.
- Still stuck? Contact your service desk through a channel you already trust, never a number from an unexpected call or email.
Catch up on the Microsoft 365 outage
- Insure Your Data Center Against Your Next Dark Thursday: what caused the Microsoft outage, the hour-by-hour timeline and who was affected worldwide.
- The Day of the Outage: A Surge of Calls, Answered: inside our service desk, practical workarounds and an IT admin checklist.
Need help getting your users back to normal?
Maintech Managed Services can help you clear the backlog, retire temporary workarounds safely and support your users through recovery.
- Call: +1 (800) 426-8324 (Global) · +44 (0) 7799 747974 (Europe) · +65 6909 7351 (APAC)
- Email: contact@maintech.com
- Visit: maintech.com/contact-us
Sources
- Windows Central: Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive and Copilot recovery updates
- TechRadar: Microsoft outage live blog
- ABC News (Australia): Microsoft outage hits users worldwide
Maintech has delivered IT infrastructure and managed services for data centers, cloud and end-user environments for more than 50 years, with W-2 employees in 60+ countries and an average client tenure of 12+ years.
