Outlook not working

Microsoft has not published a firm restoration time; the public consumer status currently reports Outlook.com as Operational, although the November 12–13 outage may still be intermittent or continue in some regions. ^1^ ^2^

A widespread Microsoft outage affecting Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services was reported during this period. ^3^ Because Microsoft has not provided a universal recovery time, the service-health page is the authoritative place to monitor updates.

Determine whether service has returned

1. Open Outlook.com in a browser and try to send and receive a message.
2. Interpret the result:
   • Web Outlook also fails: This remains a service or mailbox-side issue. Continue monitoring Microsoft service health rather than reinstalling Classic Outlook.
   • Web Outlook works: The service is available for the account, and the remaining problem is likely confined to Classic Outlook on the PC. Microsoft recommends this browser comparison to distinguish a server problem from a local client problem. ^4^

If only Classic Outlook remains unavailable

Check the status bar at the bottom of Outlook:

• If it says Working Offline, select Send/Receive → Work Offline once to reconnect.
• If it says Disconnected while web Outlook works, install pending Windows and Office updates. If Outlook still will not start, press Windows+R, enter outlook.exe /safe, and select OK. Safe mode starts Outlook without add-ins and helps identify an add-in conflict. ^5^

Avoid reinstalling Outlook while the web version and service-health page indicate an active outage; a local reinstall cannot resolve a Microsoft-hosted service incident.

References

1. Microsoft service health status
2. status.cloud.microsoft
3. Microsoft platforms including Outlook suffer widespread outages
4. [Classic Outlook](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/getstarted/how-to-work-offline-in-outlook-for-windows#status-messages-in-classic-outlook)
5. [Classic Outlook](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/getstarted/outlook-for-windows-not-responding-hangs-freezes-or-stops-working)