Following the major Microsoft 365 outage that started on Thursday evening, Microsoft says services are now recovering. Email queues are "approaching normal levels", and its executives describe "encouraging recovery progress".
Here at Q6IT, we've been keeping an eye on it all day. Here's where things stand, what you might still notice, and what we can all learn from it.
Where are things now?
More than 20 hours after the problems began, most people can get back into Outlook and Teams. Microsoft says it's still working on "residual impact", though, and warns that some users may still see:
- intermittent access issues: Outlook may not load your inbox first time
- delayed email delivery: messages sent during the outage may still be on their way
Microsoft says there's no evidence of malicious activity, so this doesn't appear to be a cyberattack, and it says it's reviewing what happened to stop it happening again.
Who was affected?
The outage hit Outlook, Teams, Copilot and other Microsoft 365 services around the world. As well as businesses, the BBC reports disruption to NHS staff, schools contacting parents by phone, and courts dealing with delays. Exporters, banks and small firms all described work grinding to a halt.
What to look out for as things recover
- Late emails. Messages may arrive hours late, showing the time they were delivered rather than sent. Check for anything important that came in late, especially orders, invoices and customer enquiries.
- Emails you sent. If something urgent went out during the outage, it may not have arrived. If in doubt, give the person a quick call.
- Scams. Cyber security experts warn that outages are "prime time for scammers". Be wary of messages offering to "fix" your Microsoft account, asking you to sign in again, or pointing you to a link. Microsoft won't contact you that way.
- Messaging apps. If your team switched to WhatsApp or personal email to keep things moving, make sure customer data and documents shared there are tidied up and moved back to your business systems.
The lesson for every business
As one business owner told the BBC, it's striking how quickly a single technology outage can stop several parts of a business at once. Outages this big are rare, but it's worth asking:
- Do we have a plan? Does your team know what to do if email or Teams goes down?
- Can we still reach people? Are key customer and supplier phone numbers saved somewhere other than Outlook?
- Is our data backed up? Microsoft keeps its services running, but backing up your own emails and files is your responsibility. An independent Microsoft 365 backup means you're never completely stuck.
- How will we tell customers? A quick message on your website or social media can save a lot of missed enquiries.
Need a hand?
If you're still having problems with email after the outage, or you'd like help putting a simple continuity plan and Microsoft 365 backup in place, Q6IT is here to help.
Read our earlier update: Major Microsoft 365 Outage Hits Email, Teams and More: What You Need to Know
Details correct as of Friday afternoon, 13 November 2026.
Source: BBC News