Outlook, Teams and the rest of Microsoft 365 went down for much of Thursday afternoon. At the worst of it, about 130,000 people had reported problems with Outlook alone. Here is what broke, why Microsoft says it happened, and what to do if it hits you again.
BREAKING | By Joseph J. Jackson | TAMPA BAY (Nov. 12, 2026)
The short version
Microsoft first flagged trouble at 12:54 p.m. Eastern: people in the Americas couldn’t get into their Outlook mailboxes. It later said users in any region could be affected.
Outlook email, Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft’s security tools were on the list. Some users also reported OneDrive and Office online problems.
Microsoft says servers kept failing automated health checks and dropping offline, which piled the load onto the servers that were left.
As of Thursday evening, it was improving but not fully fixed. Microsoft warned servers could go down again as traffic comes back.
What happened
The first post from Microsoft’s 365 Status account came at 12:54 p.m. Eastern, reporting problems reaching Exchange Online mailboxes “through multiple connection methods in the Americas,” Variety reported. Microsoft later warned that the problem could affect Microsoft 365 connections for users in any region.
Microsoft’s advisory listed Exchange Online, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Defender XDR, BleepingComputer reported. The company dates the wider incident to 1:26 p.m. Eastern.
Reports on Downdetector peaked at about 130,000 for Outlook, according to CNBC. Some people also reported problems with Amazon and Google services, but Amazon Web Services said it was “operating normally” and called those reports inaccurate.
Why Microsoft says it happened
Microsoft said a large number of servers were failing automated health checks and becoming unavailable, which shifted the load onto the rest of its system. It said the extra load was not caused by a jump in traffic. Later updates pointed to a component that processes those health checks and to some recent configuration changes it was investigating, Tom’s Guide reported.
Engineers restarted the affected servers around 4:45 p.m. and tried a different health-check method on part of the system. Reports fell from the peak but were still near 30,000 at 7:12 p.m. Microsoft warned that the servers “can become unresponsive again once they receive traffic,” so it was limiting some kinds of traffic in some locations.
Who it hit
The outage reached well beyond email. Reuters reported it also hit connectors used by OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s AI services. In Toronto, a hospital network declared a “Code Grey,” its alert for a loss of infrastructure, because staff couldn’t send and receive email; it said patient care was not affected, CP24 reported.
In Tampa Bay, big employers including Jabil, Raymond James, Publix, Tampa General Hospital and USF, along with local governments and schools, use Microsoft products, Tampa Bay Business & Wealth noted. It found no confirmed local disruptions and no verified sign that the outage touched power, water, the airport or emergency services. If your office or agency was knocked offline Thursday, tell us: tips@floridamannewsnetwork.com.
What to do if it happens again
Check if it’s you or everyone. Microsoft posts updates on its Microsoft 365 Status account on X and its service health page. Downdetector shows whether others are seeing the same thing. Admins can follow incidents EX1550543 and MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Switch channels for anything urgent. Call or text. If you have a doctor’s appointment or a deadline tied to email, pick up the phone.
Keep a backup of your contacts. On a personal Outlook account you can export contacts to a file (Open & Export, then Import/Export). Work accounts may not allow it.
Watch for scam emails. Outages are a favorite cover for fake “reset your password” or “verify your account” messages. Don’t click links in messages about the outage; go to Microsoft’s site yourself.
Expect a bumpy Friday morning. Microsoft warned the fix could wobble as traffic returns, and Friday morning is when everyone logs back on.
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FMNN will update this story when Microsoft says the outage is over and explains what caused it.
Sources
Variety, “Outlook Outage: Microsoft’s Email Service Goes Down Nationwide,” Nov. 12, 2026
CNBC, “Widespread Microsoft outage takes down Outlook and other 365 services,” Nov. 12, 2026
Reuters via MarketScreener, “Microsoft outage drags on for hours,” Nov. 12, 2026
The Register, “Microsoft struggling to fix massive cloud outage,” Nov. 12, 2026
CP24, “Code Grey declared at Toronto hospital network amid Microsoft outage,” Nov. 12, 2026
Photo: Microsoft sign, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.