My Outlook /Hotmail is not working

A widespread Outlook/Outlook.com outage is being reported today, November 12, 2026, so check Microsoft’s service status and report your impact through Outlook.com’s Help pane if you can sign in.^1^

Check the outage status

Open Microsoft’s Service Health Status site. Microsoft directs Outlook.com users there when they have trouble accessing the service; if its status is not green, wait until normal service is restored before trying again.^2^

Reports indicate that today’s incident is affecting Outlook email access and related Microsoft 365 services, so a 4½-hour interruption may be part of the current outage rather than an isolated account problem.^3^

Avoid repeatedly changing your password while the service reports an outage; a password change will not resolve a service-side interruption.

Report it to Outlook.com support

If you can sign in:

1. In Outlook.com, select Help on the top menu, then Help.
2. Enter a description such as “Unable to send, receive, or open Outlook.com email since [time]” and press Return.
3. If the suggested answers do not resolve it, scroll to Still need help?
4. Select Yes to submit the issue to Outlook.com support by email.^4^

Include the approximate start time, your region, the exact error message, and whether the problem occurs in both a browser and the Outlook app. Do not post your password or verification codes.

If you cannot sign in, use Microsoft’s customer-support page and its Microsoft account sign-in helper. Support representatives cannot access or change account details or send password-reset links.^5^

For a work or school Microsoft 365 account

A Microsoft 365 administrator can open the Microsoft 365 admin center → Health → Service health. If the problem is not already listed, select Report an issue, complete the form, and then track it under Reported issues.^6^

That administrator reporting option applies to organizational Microsoft 365 tenants; personal Hotmail/Outlook.com users should use the Outlook.com Help → Still need help? route above.

References

1. Microsoft Outlook outage affects thousands: What to know about the November 12 incident
2. How to sign in to Hotmail | Microsoft Support
3. Microsoft's Outlook email hit by new outage | TechCrunch
4. How to get support for Outlook.com | Microsoft Support
5. Contact Microsoft customer support | Microsoft Support
6. How to check Microsoft 365 service health