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Today, when I opened Manage rules & Alerts, it tells me "You are currently working offline. To use this command, you must go online and connect to Microsoft Exchange"
The fact is that the email account I am attempting to manage is NOT a Microsoft Exchange account and the rules file is stored locally. Is this something else that has gone wrong as a result of the highly publicised outage reported internationally yesterday?
Using classic Outlook for Windows in business environments
I do have one outlook.com email account to which I am unable to send emails from one of my non-exchange email accounts. Is this connected with the current outage?
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Hi,
Thank you for your update,
Yes, it is possible that the issue is related to the ongoing incident, especially if the affected Outlook.com mailbox is one of the services currently experiencing impact.
I would like to provide the latest update regarding the ongoing service incident.
Based on the latest service health updates, some users may still encounter intermittent access issues or delayed email delivery while recovery efforts continue. As a result, sending emails from certain external (non-Exchange) mail systems to Outlook.com addresses could be affected in some cases.
When I look in the Account information, it is telling me that I am currently offline. WHY?
Dear Chris Jones,
Based on your description, I understand that you are encountering the following message when accessing Manage Rules & Alerts in Outlook:
"You are currently working offline. To use this command, you must go online and connect to Microsoft Exchange."
There was indeed a widespread Microsoft 365 service disruption on November 12, 2026, affecting Outlook and Exchange Online connectivity across multiple regions. Microsoft has been working on service recovery. Therefore, the timing of your issue may be related to the recent incident.
Here is the latest update:
If you have Microsoft 365 administrator privileges, please kindly sign in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center to view the details and latest updates of this issue.
I’ll continue monitoring the situation and keep you updated as soon as new information becomes available.
In the meantime, please try the following steps:
Restart Outlook: Close Outlook completely and reopen it to see whether the connection status changes.
Check your account configuration: Go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings and confirm the account type (such as POP or IMAP).
Test Outlook in a new profile: If the issue persists, consider creating a temporary Outlook profile to determine whether the problem is related to your existing profile.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please feel free to reach out if you need any further assistance. as soon as new information becomes available.