Service Advisory | BOSS IT Solutions

Published: Friday, 13 November 2026

Status at publication: Microsoft investigating widespread service disruption

Microsoft is experiencing a significant service disruption affecting Outlook, Exchange Online and potentially other Microsoft 365 services.

Users around the world have reported difficulties accessing their email, sending and receiving messages, and connecting to Microsoft’s cloud services.

According to ABC News, more than 120,000 outage reports were recorded for Outlook, with additional reports involving Microsoft Teams and Copilot.

For Australian businesses relying on Microsoft 365, this is an important reminder that even major cloud providers can experience infrastructure failures.

What Is Actually Happening?

Microsoft has acknowledged connectivity problems involving its Exchange Online infrastructure.

Exchange Online is the cloud-based email platform powering Microsoft 365 business mailboxes.

When Outlook connects to your business email, it communicates with Microsoft’s servers to authenticate your account, retrieve messages, synchronise folders and process email traffic.

Microsoft has identified elevated load affecting parts of its infrastructure, resulting in connectivity errors. Engineers are working to restore normal service by redistributing traffic and repairing affected systems.

The complete underlying cause has not yet been confirmed.

Although Microsoft initially identified problems affecting customers in the Americas, reports indicate a broader, potentially multi-regional impact. This does not mean every Microsoft 365 customer in Australia is experiencing problems.

What Problems Might You Experience?

Depending on the affected service, symptoms may include:

• Outlook displaying “Disconnected” or failing to connect.
• Emails not sending, arriving late or remaining in the Outbox.
• Outlook on the web failing to load.
• Repeated connection errors or authentication prompts.
• Microsoft Teams or other Microsoft 365 applications responding slowly or failing to connect.
• Problems occurring across multiple computers or mobile devices simultaneously.

These symptoms do not necessarily mean your computer, email account or internet connection is faulty.

Important: Do Not Attempt Unnecessary Repairs

When Microsoft experiences a widespread outage, changing settings on your computer is unlikely to resolve a problem originating within Microsoft’s infrastructure.

We recommend avoiding unnecessary troubleshooting until you have established whether your organisation is affected.

In particular:

• Do not delete and recreate your Outlook profile without a confirmed reason.
• Do not repeatedly reset your Microsoft 365 password.
• Do not uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Office as a first response.
• Do not change your domain’s email or DNS configuration.
• Do not disable security features, including multifactor authentication, to try to restore access.

These actions can introduce additional problems that may remain after Microsoft’s services recover.

What Should Businesses Do?

First, determine whether your issue is local or part of the wider Microsoft outage.

Try accessing your business email through Outlook on the web, although this is also not working.

If the desktop application is not connecting but webmail works, the browser may provide temporary access.

If multiple users or devices cannot access their mailboxes, a Microsoft service issue becomes more likely, although other causes are still possible.

Microsoft 365 administrators can check the Service Health section of the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre for incidents affecting their organisation.

For urgent communications, consider using telephone calls, SMS or another established communication channel. Confirm that time-sensitive emails have actually reached their recipients.

Can Your IT Provider Fix the Outage?

If the failure is occurring within Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, your local IT technician cannot directly repair Microsoft’s servers.

However, an experienced IT provider can identify whether the problem is related to Microsoft or your own systems, check your organisation’s service health and mail flow, and investigate any remaining issues after service is restored.

This distinction is important.

A Microsoft service outage does not automatically mean your computer needs repairing.

BOSS IT Solutions – Microsoft 365 Support

BOSS IT Solutions provides independent IT support and Microsoft 365 administration for businesses throughout Orange, Central West NSW and remotely across Australia.

If you are experiencing Outlook or Microsoft 365 problems, we can help determine whether your issue is related to the reported Microsoft outage or something specific to your business environment.

We recommend checking the current service status before making significant changes to your email configuration.

Official service information: Microsoft Service Health

News source: ABC News – Widespread Microsoft Outlook Outage, 13 November 2026

This advisory reflects information available at publication. Service status, affected regions and restoration estimates may change as Microsoft provides further updates.