Microsoft 365 outage hits Outlook and email services across the Americas

Microsoft 365 users across the Americas faced difficulties accessing their email on Thursday, November 12, 2026. Reports of outages began around 1:00 PM Colombia time, which corresponds to 12:30 PM Eastern Time in the United States.

The problems mainly affected access to Exchange Online mailboxes through Outlook on desktop, web and mobile. Other services including Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Copilot 365 and Microsoft Defender XDR also received failure reports.

“We are investigating reports of users experiencing problems accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas.”

Downdetector recorded more than 80,000 reports at the peak for Outlook, while Microsoft 365 accumulated over 15,000 failure reports. Microsoft acknowledged the issue through its official @MSFT365Status account on X and said it was investigating under incident code EX1550543.

The company later warned that the problem could affect Microsoft 365 connectivity for users in any region, not only the Americas. Microsoft also advised checking the Microsoft 365 admin center for additional details.

Microsoft has not yet confirmed the cause of the outage. The company said it is working to mitigate the impact and will provide updates as the investigation continues.

Some users reported that OneDrive stopped responding after being accessible earlier. Universities and other organizations said entire email systems became inaccessible.

Microsoft has been contacted for comment and has not yet replied.