When email or Teams is down, the usual way to tell people is down too. The Microsoft 365 outage that began on 12 November 2026 started with Exchange Online mailbox access failures in the Americas and then affected Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Copilot and Microsoft Defender XDR in several regions, according to Microsoft and press reports. Microsoft said it was not aware of malicious activity causing it. Read what happened in the Microsoft 365 outage, then build the SMS, phone tree, status page and backup chat messages you would send, for staff, executives, customers and the helpdesk.
[Organization] IT: Email is down (Microsoft 365). Phone for urgent work. We'll never send a 'restore your mailbox' or password link. Next update [time of next update].
Over 160 characters, so most phones receive it as 2 joined parts. Shorten the fields you typed if your SMS service charges per part.
Microsoft 365 email is not working Microsoft 365 email is not working for many people at [Organization]. You may not be able to send or receive email or open your calendar, on your computer or your phone. We believe the problem is on the Microsoft 365 side, not on your device, and we are working on it. You do not need to restart or reinstall anything. What to do: - Workaround: Phone people for anything urgent and use the backup chat channel. Keep a note of important messages you could not send. - Do not keep re-sending the same email. It may go out several times when service returns. - Do not forward work email to personal accounts as a workaround. - Need help? Contact [helpdesk phone or backup channel]. We will never ask you to re-enter your password or "restore your mailbox" through a link during this outage. Report any message like that to [helpdesk phone or backup channel]. Next update: [time of next update], even if nothing has changed.
The pack holds every audience and stage for “Email down” in all four channels (48 messages), with your details filled in.
Say what is not working, that the problem is with the provider and not their device, what to use instead (usually the phone and a backup chat), not to keep re-sending email, how to get help, and when the next update will come. Add a line that IT will never ask them to re-enter their password or "restore their mailbox" through a link, because outage-themed phishing is believable while email is broken.
Use channels that do not run on Microsoft 365: SMS, a phone tree, a status page hosted somewhere else, and a backup chat set up in advance. If your intranet runs on SharePoint it may be down too. Collect personal mobile numbers and set up the backup channel before you need them.
When email or sign-in is failing, a message saying "your mailbox needs to be restored, sign in here" looks plausible. Telling people in advance that IT will never ask for this through a link gives them a simple rule, and tells them where to report a message that breaks it.
Aim for one message: 160 characters if you use only standard characters (the GSM default alphabet). Longer texts are split into parts of 153 characters, and a single special character, such as a curly quote or an emoji, drops the limit to 70. The tool counts this for you.
Microsoft says admins can see incidents under Health > Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin center. If you cannot sign in to the admin center, Microsoft points to the public status page at status.cloud.microsoft and the @MSFT365Status account on X.
Viewing every message on the page is free. Copying them and downloading the full pack (every audience, stage and channel as Markdown) need a paid plan.
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