Microsoft Outage Live: Is Outlook Working Now? Latest Updates on Outlook and Teams

Updated 13 Nov 2026, 17:24 · First published 13 Nov 2026

Microsoft says Outlook and Teams are slowly coming back after a global outage that began at around 6pm UK time on Thursday, but the problems are not fully over. Users in the UK are still reporting issues with Outlook nearly a day later, and Microsoft warns some people may still have trouble getting into their email or see messages arrive late. We are following the latest updates here.

Latest updates

5.25pm – Microsoft has not posted a new update since 3.39pm and has still not said the outage is over. Downdetector UK continues to show people reporting problems with Outlook, mainly with email.

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3.39pm – Microsoft says it is seeing “encouraging recovery progress”, with email delivery improving across a growing part of the affected systems. For the first time it also apologises, saying it knows customers rely on its services “to get important work done every day” and regrets the impact of the outages.

We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected infrastructure.

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

3.15pm – Downdetector UK still shows people reporting problems with Outlook, mainly with logging in and with sending and receiving emails, with knock-on problems in Teams and Copilot.

2.17pm – Microsoft says it is “continuing to see improvements in service availability, with email queues significantly reduced and approaching normal levels”. Some users may still see intermittent access issues or delayed emails, and Microsoft says it has added further measures to speed up recovery.

We’re continuing to see improvements in service availability, with email queues significantly reduced and approaching normal levels.

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

1.32pm – Microsoft reports broader improvements in North America, sustained improvements across much of Europe and early signs of recovery in Asia Pacific.

12.20pm – Outlook problem reports in the UK on Downdetector fall to just over 4,000 – about half the level of three hours earlier.

12.09pm – Microsoft says it is seeing “encouraging recovery progress”, with service availability and email delivery improving.

9.52am – Microsoft says it has extended the email timeout window to 48 hours, so emails sent during the outage should still be delivered rather than bounced back.

9.16am – Microsoft says it is not aware of any malicious activity, ruling out a cyber attack for now.

9.05am – The UK government says it is working closely with Microsoft to assess the impact. Councils including Richmond and police forces including Hertfordshire and Dorset warn that email and online forms may be disrupted.

8.47am – Outlook problem reports in the UK on Downdetector reach almost 7,900.

Thursday, 6pm – Microsoft says it is investigating reports of users being unable to access Exchange Online mailboxes. Problems spread to Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 apps overnight.

Is Outlook working now?

For most people Outlook is coming back, but not for everyone. Microsoft says email queues are close to normal, but it still warns about intermittent access problems and delayed emails. If Outlook still is not loading for you, try again later before changing any settings.

What should I do about missing emails?

Do not resend emails straight away. Microsoft has extended the time it keeps undelivered messages to 48 hours, so emails sent during the outage should still arrive once the backlog clears. Businesses can follow incident MO1550821 in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

What caused the Microsoft outage?

Microsoft has not given a full explanation yet. It says many servers became unexpectedly unavailable after failing health checks, which put extra load on the rest of the system. It says it has found no evidence of a cyber attack. A full report on what went wrong could take weeks.

How many people were affected?

At the peak, Downdetector logged around 130,000 Outlook problem reports in the US and almost 7,900 in the UK. Reports have been falling since Friday morning.

Read more: Is Outlook back? Microsoft says Outlook and Teams are recovering after global outage