Office for Mac won't send and receive messages and can't check storage

A Microsoft 365/Outlook service disruption is occurring today, November 12, 2026, so wait for Microsoft to report service restoration before changing or removing the Outlook account on your Mac.^1^

What to do now

1. Open the Microsoft service-health page and check for Outlook, Exchange, or Microsoft 365 incidents.
2. Recheck the incident periodically. A service interruption can prevent sending, receiving, and signing in; Microsoft posts investigation and recovery updates as work progresses.^2^
3. Avoid deleting and re-adding the Outlook account while the incident remains active. That will not repair a server-side disruption and could require your mailbox to download again afterward.
4. Once the status changes to Service restored, quit and reopen Outlook, then test by sending a short message to yourself.

For a work or school account, an administrator—or someone assigned the Service Support admin or Helpdesk admin role—can see tenant-specific information under Microsoft 365 admin center → Health → Service health.^2^

Check storage after service restoration

Paying for an annual subscription does not by itself show that storage is currently available. Outlook.com cannot send or receive mail if either the mailbox quota or total Microsoft cloud-storage quota has been exceeded.^3^

After Outlook.com becomes accessible:

• Mailbox usage: Select Settings → Account → Storage, or open the mailbox-storage page.
• Total Microsoft cloud storage: Open the Microsoft account dashboard and select Microsoft storage. This total includes OneDrive files and other content associated with the personal Microsoft account.^4^

If the account is over quota, archive or download important messages and files before permanently emptying Deleted Items, Junk Email, or the OneDrive Recycle Bin; permanently emptied content may not be recoverable. Then remove unneeded large items and confirm that usage drops below the quota.

Only if service health is normal or restored

Since the usual troubleshooting has already been completed, limit further checks to these specific items:

1. In Outlook for Mac, open the Outlook menu and confirm Work Offline is not selected.
2. If the account is POP or IMAP and receiving resumes but sending does not, go to Tools → Accounts → select the account → Outgoing server → More Options, then verify the required SMTP authentication credentials.
3. If Outlook.com works in another browser but not Safari, confirm Safari is version 16 or later.

These are Microsoft’s Mac-specific connectivity requirements.^5^ If Outlook.com and storage pages still time out after Microsoft reports restoration, use Help → Contact Support in Outlook for Mac rather than repeating account resets.

References

1. Microsoft service health status
2. How to check Microsoft 365 service health
3. Microsoft storage quotas
4. What is Microsoft cloud storage?
5. I can't send or receive messages with Outlook for Mac | Microsoft Support