Urgent: Request for Estimated Resolution Time – Microsoft Outlook Service Disruption

No generally applicable estimated resolution time has been published for the November 13, 2026 Outlook/Exchange disruption; your Microsoft 365 administrator should open the tenant-specific incident under Health > Service health, where Microsoft posts the latest status, remediation progress, next-update time, and any estimate applicable to your organization.^1^

Current status

Microsoft has acknowledged an active Microsoft 365 service degradation affecting Outlook/Exchange-related services. Reported remediation has included isolating affected infrastructure, restarting components, rerouting traffic, and gradually returning servers to service. Recovery remains limited or sporadic, and there is currently no official general ETR.^1^

For information specific to your tenant:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center using an administrator account.
2. Go to Health > Service health.
3. Under Active issues Microsoft is working on, open the Outlook or Exchange Online incident.
4. Review:
   • Status and User impact
   • Last updated
   • All updates, including investigation and mitigation details
   • The stated time for Microsoft’s next update
   • Any recovery estimate or workaround Microsoft has published

Service Support admins and Helpdesk admins can also view Service health. Administrators can select Manage notifications for this issue to receive incident updates at up to two email addresses.^2^

If the admin center itself is unavailable, use Microsoft’s public service-status page. The public page is a fallback; tenant Service health normally provides the more precise impact information.^3^

Temporary continuity options

There is no documented workaround that restores server-side Outlook or Exchange access during this incident. Available local continuity depends on data already cached on each computer:

• Classic Outlook: Previously synchronized messages, calendar data, and contacts may remain accessible through Cached Exchange Mode. Users can draft messages, but Outlook cannot send or receive until it reconnects.
• If Outlook shows Working Offline, that is different from Disconnected. To attempt reconnection, select Send/Receive > Work Offline once. If the button is no longer highlighted but Outlook remains disconnected, the server connection is still unavailable.
• Do not repeatedly recreate Outlook profiles or reinstall Office while the tenant incident remains active; those actions do not remediate a Microsoft service incident.
• If Outlook on the web remains reachable for your tenant, it can be used temporarily. If both desktop Outlook and web access fail, cached content is the only documented Outlook continuity option until service returns.^4^

Messages composed while offline remain queued and will send after connectivity is restored.

When to escalate

If the outage appears in your tenant’s Service health dashboard, Microsoft directs customers to track that incident there rather than open a duplicate support request. Service-health incident updates are generally posted hourly unless the incident notice specifies another cadence.^5^

If your organization is affected but no matching incident appears:

1. On Health > Service health, select Report an issue and submit the affected service and symptoms.
2. Alternatively, in the admin center select Help & support.
3. Enter the problem description.
4. If the suggested results do not resolve it, select Contact Support, choose phone or email, and submit the request.

Microsoft 365 business support requires an eligible subscription purchased through Microsoft; if all subscriptions were purchased through a partner, contact that partner instead.^6^

References

1. Microsoft outage November 2026 - Microsoft Q&A
2. How to check Microsoft 365 service health
3. Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 & Power Platform incident readiness for Microsoft Engage Center
4. [Classic Outlook](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/getstarted/how-to-work-offline-in-outlook-for-windows#status-messages-in-classic-outlook)
5. Service health and continuity
6. Get support for Microsoft 365 for business