My outlook is down, why?

Outlook experienced a widespread service incident on November 12–13, 2026, so an unresponsive Mail envelope is likely service-related; check Microsoft’s Service Health Status before changing your account or device settings.^1^ Microsoft directs Outlook.com users who cannot access the service to that status page.^2^

What to do now

1. Open the Microsoft Service Health Status site linked near the top of Microsoft’s Outlook.com known-issues page.^2^
2. If Outlook shows an active incident, wait for Microsoft to mark it resolved, then refresh Outlook.com and select the envelope again. Local repairs will not resolve an active server-side outage.
3. If service health shows Outlook as available, try Outlook.com in Microsoft Edge or another browser.
4. If it works there, disable AdBlock, uBlock, or similar extensions for Outlook.com, then refresh the page. Microsoft documents these blockers as a cause of messages timing out, loading slowly, or not loading. Firefox add-ons can also prevent the inbox from loading.^3^

If access still fails

• If you cannot sign in, use the Microsoft account sign-in helper available from Microsoft’s Outlook.com troubleshooting page.
• If you can sign in but the envelope remains unresponsive, select Help in Outlook.com, enter the problem, and then choose Still need help? → Yes to contact Outlook.com support.^4^

Do not reset the account or delete email while the service incident is unresolved.

References

1. Microsoft Outlook outage affects thousands: What to know about the November 12 incident
2. Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com
3. Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
4. Can't send or receive email in Outlook.com | Microsoft Support