Intersectis Client update · Microsoft 365
Recovering — not yet stable

Microsoft 365 outage: where things stand

Microsoft's worldwide Microsoft 365 disruption is now in its second day. Email is recovering but is not yet stable, and the delivery backlog will outlast the outage itself. Here is what Microsoft has said, what is and is not working, and what to do today.

Microsoft's last published update: Fri 13 Nov, 7:59 AM ET that is 4:59 AM PT · 12:59 UTC  ·  next Microsoft update due by 9:00 AM ET (6:00 AM PT · 2:00 PM UTC) This page last updated Fri 13 Nov, 8:40 AM ET · 5:40 AM PT · 1:40 PM UTC

A note from the Intersectis team

We are calling this Microsoft's forced health and wellness day. Nobody signed up, nobody can decline, and attendance is mandatory — enthusiasm is optional. So take the walk you keep postponing, play nine holes if the mood strikes, and let the backlog catch up without you. Microsoft is holding your mail; it is not going anywhere, which is precisely the problem. 🙂

Need help now? Call 760.683.1760  ·  support@intersectis.com Phone is the reliable channel while email and Teams are degraded.

Is this just us, or is this Microsoft

It is Microsoft. This is a Microsoft-side incident affecting tenants worldwide, not a fault in your environment and nothing you triggered. Nothing has been lost either: Microsoft is holding delayed mail rather than bouncing it.

Microsoft incident MO1550821, with a related Exchange Online incident, EX1550543.

At a glance

The short version, before the detail below. Times are given in Eastern, Pacific and UTC throughout.

Started
Thu 12 Nov, 1:26 PM ET10:26 AM PT · 18:26 UTC

Microsoft opened MO1550821 then. The Exchange-specific incident, EX1550543, opened earlier that morning.

Running for
19 hours

And counting. Microsoft has given no date or time for full restoration.

Scope
Worldwide

All regions. Features that depend on Exchange Online and email are the ones impacted; the rest of Microsoft 365 largely works.

Cause
No evidence of attack

Microsoft says it has no evidence of malicious activity, and will publish a full post-incident report with the root cause once mitigation is complete.

Microsoft's updates, newest first

Taken from Microsoft's own service-health posts, not from news coverage.

  1. Fri 13 Nov, 7:59 AM ET4:59 AM PT · 12:59 UTC

    Broader improvement in North America, sustained improvement across much of Europe, and encouraging recovery signals in Asia Pacific. Microsoft warns some users will still see intermittent access issues and delayed email delivery as it finishes mitigation.

  2. Fri 13 Nov, 7:18 AM ET4:18 AM PT · 12:18 UTC

    Encouraging recovery progress in Europe, with availability and email performance improving. Japan comparatively more stable and North America also improving. The extended 48-hour email timeout stays in place to protect delayed messages.

  3. Fri 13 Nov, 6:01 AM ET3:01 AM PT · 11:01 UTC

    Recovery actions completed across portions of the Asia Pacific infrastructure. Traffic is being gradually restored and mailbox access and delayed email processing are improving.

  4. Fri 13 Nov, 4:57 AM ET1:57 AM PT · 09:57 UTC

    Incremental improvement across several workloads, but service health remains variable and capacity is not yet back to normal. Network and traffic-management actions remain active.

  5. Fri 13 Nov, 4:03 AM ET1:03 AM PT · 09:03 UTC

    Recovery progressing in phases. Microsoft confirms Defender for Office 365 protections — Safe Links, Safe Attachments, quarantine and threat explorer — are impacted alongside email.

  6. Thu 12 Nov, 1:26 PM ET10:26 AM PT · 18:26 UTC

    Microsoft opens MO1550821: users may be unable to connect to multiple Microsoft 365 services.

What is working, and what is not

Microsoft's own service-by-service position. The distinction matters — most of Teams keeps working, which is not what people assume when they hear "Microsoft 365 outage".

Still working

Per Microsoft, these are up.

  • Teams calls, meetings, group chats and channel messages
  • Files stored directly in SharePoint — opening and editing
  • Microsoft 365 services that do not touch Exchange or email
  • Mail delivery in the regions already reconnected

Degraded or failing

The ones your staff will hit today.

  • Outlook and Exchange Online — mailbox access on web, desktop and mobile, plus delayed delivery
  • Teams calendar — scheduling, invites, viewing and meeting edits; live and virtual event creation
  • Copilot in Microsoft 365 — chat replies, and access to email, calendar and files
  • SharePoint — sharing files with people outside your organization
  • Admin center and Microsoft 365 apps — some pages, and recently used files
  • Defender, Purview, Intune, Planner, Power BI, To Do, Universal Print — portal pages and specific workflows
  • Microsoft Graph — calls that read mail, calendar or contacts

What to do now

  1. Don't re-send. Microsoft has extended its email timeout to 48 hours so delayed messages are preserved rather than bounced. Re-sending just creates the duplicates you will be clearing up tomorrow.
  2. Stop hunting for a mailbox app that works. Microsoft lists Outlook on the web, desktop, mobile and REST connections all impacted, so switching apps will not get you in — there is nowhere to switch to. Route around email instead: Teams for chat and calls, the phone for anything urgent.
  3. Expect late, out-of-order and duplicated mail. Sent items and read state can lag behind delivery: a message can arrive before it appears in your Sent folder.
  4. Watch for phishing. Outages attract fake "account verification" and "service credit" messages. Microsoft will not ask for your password because of an outage, and neither will we. Do not reset your password over a sign-in error — this looks like a login failure but is not one.
  5. Hold bulk mail — newsletters, invoice runs and large distributions — until the backlog clears. If OneDrive sync errors, save critical files locally until it confirms.
  6. Stop refreshing. The inbox will not recover faster because you are watching it. Use the gaps for the work that needs no mailbox, and get outside for the rest — the queued mail is already queued.

What we are doing

We are watching Microsoft's service health across client tenants, and this page is built from Microsoft's published updates directly rather than from news reports.

If something breaks that this page does not explain — a laptop that cannot reach anything at all, an alarm from your monitoring, or a mailbox still misbehaving after Microsoft calls this resolved — tell us rather than waiting it out. None of that is the outage, and we will treat it as its own problem.

When Microsoft closes the incident we will read its post-incident report for anything that changes your exposure, and come back to you on what Microsoft's service-credit terms mean for your agreement.