Is Microsoft 365 still down? Where to check
UK disruption was still being reported at 9:03 am GMT on Friday 13 November.
Open Health → Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin centre and check the affected Microsoft 365 tenant, the cloud environment that holds your organisation’s accounts and services.
If the admin centre is unavailable, use Microsoft’s public status page or your supplier’s status page.
The Exchange Online incident was reported under EX1550543. The wider incident, MO1550821, also affected parts of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, Copilot and Defender XDR.
Use the Service health incident ID shown for the affected tenant or ask your reseller to confirm it.
What to do if Outlook or Teams still isn’t working
If Outlook desktop fails, try Outlook on the web. Test both sending and receiving with a mailbox outside your organisation.
If several colleagues also lose web access or mail delivery and Service health shows an incident, record the affected accounts and times.
If only one user is affected or problems persist after Microsoft marks the incident resolved, raise a separate support ticket. Include the device, app, error message and whether webmail works so support can narrow down the problem.
Use your agreed backup phone number, CRM or messaging channel for time-sensitive work. Check website forms and lead dashboards directly.
If Teams calendar or join links fail, confirm urgent meetings by phone or send a replacement link through a working channel.
How to find delayed or missing email after recovery
Once access returns, test inbound and outbound mail with an external address, then check shared inboxes, Outlook’s Outbox and any failed-delivery notices. Some messages may arrive late, so verify important messages before resending them.
Ask your administrator or provider to run an Exchange Online message trace. Give them the sender, recipient, approximate time and message ID if available.
The trace can show whether Exchange received, deferred, rejected or delivered the message.
Reconcile missed leads, orders and enquiries against your website form records, CRM and phone logs. Save the incident notice, message traces and downtime records for your claim.
If mail remains delayed after recovery, update your case with examples and timestamps.
Where to file your claim and when
Check the invoice for the affected subscription. If Microsoft bills you directly, an administrator can open Help & support in the Microsoft 365 admin centre and request an Exchange Online SLA credit.
The November 2026 SLA requires Microsoft to receive the claim and supporting information by the end of the following applicable period. For a November incident on a standard calendar-month Microsoft 365 plan, that means 31 December 2026.
If GoDaddy or another reseller bills you, contact that supplier and ask it to raise or route the credit request through its Microsoft partner channel.
Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Provider guidance gives the submitting partner one month after the end of the affected billing month for Microsoft 365. Contact the reseller promptly, since it may need your evidence earlier.
Ask for a case reference, the applicable deadline and how any approved credit will appear on your bill.
If the Microsoft admin centre redirects you to GoDaddy sign-in, use GoDaddy’s UK support route and have your Email & Office subscription details ready.
How much could the Exchange Online credit be?
Microsoft’s November 2026 SLA measures Outlook on the web availability in user-minutes. It counts periods when affected users could not send or receive email through the web service, subject to the SLA exclusions.
A desktop Outlook error or the total length of the global incident alone cannot establish your entitlement. If messages were delayed, the SLA also has separate Exchange email delivery measures.
As an illustration, six hours of qualifying downtime across every licensed user in a 30-day month would leave monthly uptime at about 99.17%. The same six hours affecting one in ten users would leave it at about 99.92%, assuming no other downtime.
The first example falls in the 25% tier and the second falls outside the availability credit threshold.
The percentage applies to eligible fees for the affected service, resource or tier under the SLA. Ask how the supplier calculates the eligible amount if you buy Exchange Online as part of a Microsoft 365 bundle.
If Teams, SharePoint or another workload also failed, record it separately. Ask the supplier whether that service has an applicable uptime commitment and assess it under its own SLA terms.
| Monthly uptime | Credit on eligible fees |
|---|---|
| 99.9% or higher | No availability credit |
| 99% to below 99.9% | 25% |
| 95% to below 99% | 50% |
| Below 95% | 100% |
What to include in the support ticket
Ask for an assessment in writing. A short opening is enough: “Please assess an Exchange Online SLA service credit for our Microsoft 365 subscription following the 12–13 November 2026 outage.
Please confirm the incident reference, submission deadline and supporting evidence you need.”
- Add your organisation name, Microsoft 365 tenant ID, affected workload (for example, Exchange Online), subscription plan and billing reference. The tenant ID is a globally unique identifier (GUID). Find it on the Overview page in the Microsoft Entra admin centre, or ask your reseller if it manages access.
- Give the Service health incident ID, time zone, start and end times, total number of licensed users, and number and locations of affected users.
- Describe what failed in Outlook on the web, which errors appeared and whether messages were delayed or could not be sent or received. Keep screenshots and message traces where available.
- Save the Service health notice, support case number and any post-incident report. Keep a separate record of missed orders or deadlines, additional costs and steps taken to limit the disruption.
Can you sue for lost sales or staff time?
Microsoft’s standard online services SLA makes service credits the exclusive remedy for service availability and performance issues under the agreement. The credit calculation excludes lost revenue and operating costs.
To assess a wider claim, identify the company you contracted with and review the signed agreement, any negotiated terms, liability limits and excluded losses. You would also need evidence of a breach and the loss it caused.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, sections 3 and 11 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 can subject certain restrictions in written standard business terms to a reasonableness test.
Whether that applies depends on the clause and the contract. If the losses justify legal advice, ask a commercial disputes solicitor to review the terms and the correct forum.
In England and Wales, the Civil Procedure Rules set out steps parties should usually take before a claim.
Contact your insurer or broker promptly if losses are material.
Ask whether your policy covers dependent business interruption or a non-malicious systems failure at a cloud supplier, and check the waiting period, excess and notification deadline.
UK Microsoft 365 suppliers and where to claim
Start with the company on the invoice for the affected Microsoft 365 licence. The supplier may be different from your domain registrar, IT support company or the reseller that originally set up your tenant.
This directory covers publicly verifiable UK-facing suppliers and routes. Microsoft’s partner directory does not show which customers experienced downtime or every local reseller’s contract.
Where a supplier publishes a support route without a specific outage-credit rule, ask for the applicable deadline and pass-through terms in writing.
| Supplier and source | Where to start and what the supplier publishes |
|---|---|
| Microsoft direct | Open a Microsoft 365 admin-centre support case. Under the standard SLA, Microsoft must receive a complete November claim by 31 December for a calendar-month plan. |
| GoDaddy | Open a UK support case against your Email & Office subscription. GoDaddy posted an Office 365 outage notice. Ask for a credit assessment and the filing deadline. The status notice gives no credit commitment. |
| 123 Reg | Use 123 Reg support if it bills you. Its product terms identify GoDaddy as the provisioning provider. Ask 123 Reg to route the claim and confirm the deadline. |
| BT Business | For customers on BT’s published Office 365 SLA, email slg.claims@bt.com within 10 working days of month-end. BT says approved credits appear on the next quarterly bill. Check that this SLA applies to your plan. |
| Vodafone Business | Use Vodafone’s Microsoft 365 business support if it bills for the licences. If Vodafone only manages a subscription you bought elsewhere, raise the Microsoft credit with the licence supplier and check your Vodafone managed-service terms separately. |
| Virgin Media O2 Business | Use the Virgin Media O2 Business support contact on your agreement. Its published schedule routes Premium Support through VMO2 Business. Ask separately whether the Microsoft availability credit can be passed through and what deadline applies. |
| IONOS | Use the support route in your IONOS account. Its published support scope sets out what IONOS handles. Ask it to confirm whether it can escalate the affected subscription and credit your account. |
| Fasthosts | Raise a case with Fasthosts support for your Microsoft 365 subscription. Ask for its claim deadline and confirm whether your plan uses Microsoft-hosted Exchange Online or a different hosted email service. |
| names.co.uk | Use names.co.uk first-line technical support under its Microsoft 365 terms. Ask it to escalate the Microsoft incident and confirm the applicable credit terms. |
| OVHcloud | Open a ticket in the OVHcloud Control Panel for the Microsoft 365 licence group. Ask which Microsoft SLA applies to the affected workload. OVHcloud also sells separate hosted email products with their own terms. |
| Daisy | Use the UK support route on your Daisy agreement. Ask the team to check the Microsoft outage credit against the licence and any separate managed-service terms. |
| Claranet | Use the Microsoft 365 support contact on your Claranet agreement. Ask the team to log the affected tenant and confirm the Microsoft credit route and any separate support commitments. |
| Softcat | Open a case through the Softcat support desk or account team on your order. Ask for an Exchange Online SLA claim and the relevant licence terms. Separate Softcat support or cloud-platform commitments may have different remedies. |
| Bytes Software Services | Use your Bytes CSP support or account contact. Ask for a Microsoft service-credit assessment and the deadline under your order. |
| CDW UK | Use the service desk or account team named on your CDW order. Check the Microsoft and CDW terms attached to your specific subscription for the claim route and deadline. |
| Insight UK | Insight’s Cloud Care terms route participating resellers through the support portal and describe escalation to Microsoft. End customers should contact their own invoicing supplier or Insight account team if Insight bills them directly. |
| SoftwareOne (including former Crayon accounts) | Log a case with SoftwareOne Services Support for subscriptions on its CSP agreement. For a legacy Crayon order, use the support contact on that order until told to switch. Ask the case owner to confirm the credit process. |
| Advania UK | Use the Advania licensing or service-desk contact on your order. Ask it to open a Microsoft SLA assessment and check any separate managed-service commitments. |
| Wavenet | Use the Wavenet licensing or support contact on your order if it supplies the affected subscription. Ask it to confirm the Microsoft claim route and deadline. |
| Node4 | Contact your Node4 service desk or account team if it supplies the Microsoft subscription. Ask which entity submits the Microsoft credit and how it would reach your account. |
| Computacenter | Use the service desk or commercial contact on your Microsoft 365 agreement. Confirm whether Computacenter supplies the affected licence or only manages it, then ask the licence supplier to assess the credit. |
| Exponential-e | Ask your Exponential-e account team to identify the claim route if your service includes Microsoft licensing. A consultancy-only engagement leaves the credit request with whoever bills for the licences. |
| Rackspace Technology | Use the dedicated Office 365 support portal if Rackspace supplies your Microsoft 365 service. Ask which SLA applies to Exchange Online under your agreement. Rackspace has separate terms for its own cloud and hosted email services. |
| Kuiper Technology | Contact Kuiper under the CSP addendum. Its published addendum names Ingram Micro as its distributor. Ask Kuiper to confirm the distributor and claim deadline for your order. |
If your supplier buys through a Microsoft distributor
A local IT company may sell the licences through a distributor. Microsoft accepts Cloud Solution Provider credit requests from direct-bill partners and indirect providers.
If your supplier is an indirect reseller, ask it to raise the case through its distributor and give you a case reference.
If your reseller is absent from the directory, use your invoice and Microsoft 365 admin-centre partner relationships to identify it. Ask who will submit the claim, which deadline applies, and who will issue the credit if Microsoft approves it.
| Distributor or channel provider | Published partner route |
|---|---|
| Pax8 | Partners can open a Pax8 Platform ticket for Microsoft escalation. Its published outage guide tells partners to file within 30 days. Confirm the current UK deadline with Pax8. |
| Giacom | Authorised partners can open a ticket in Cloud Market. Ask the Cloud support team for the Microsoft claim deadline and evidence requirements. |
| Westcoast Cloud | Partners should use the support route in Westcoast Cloud’s service documentation. Ask whether the team will file a Microsoft availability credit and when it needs the evidence. |
| TD SYNNEX | Use the UK Microsoft CSP support route. TD SYNNEX describes escalation to Microsoft where appropriate. Ask for the deadline specific to a Microsoft credit request. |
| Ingram Micro | Ask the partner listed on your invoice to raise the case through its Ingram Micro CSP or Xvantage account if Ingram supplies the subscription. Confirm the active distributor before filing. |
| ALSO | If your reseller sources licences through ALSO, ask it to log the issue through its ALSO Cloud Marketplace support account and confirm the deadline under its agreement. |
Alternatives to Microsoft 365 for UK businesses
Changing the company that sells you Microsoft 365 can improve billing and support. Your mailboxes still depend on Exchange Online.
To reduce that dependency, move business email to a different platform or add a separate service that can keep mail flowing during an Exchange outage.
| Option | What it can replace | What to check before moving |
|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Gmail and Calendar replace hosted email and calendars. Drive, Docs, Sheets and Meet cover file sharing, everyday editing and video meetings. | Pilot shared mailboxes and delegation, advanced spreadsheets and SharePoint workflows. You can retain desktop Office licences for users with Excel-dependent workflows. |
| Zoho Workplace | Zoho Mail, Writer, Sheet, Show and collaboration apps offer an integrated suite. | Compare your plan’s storage, retention and migration options. Test shared mailbox workflows and complex Office files. |
| Proton for Business | Business email and calendars with a privacy focus, plus file storage and collaboration tools on relevant plans. | Check the specific plan, shared-address workflows, retention, admin controls and mail-client compatibility. |
| Fastmail | Custom-domain email, shared calendars and contacts. Pair it with separate document and meeting tools. | Check mailbox delegation, archiving and the tools your team will use for files, chat and calls. |
| Slack | Team channels, messaging and huddles. Zoom or Google Meet can also cover meetings. | Test guest access and retention. Configure an independent login route if the goal is to work through a Microsoft identity outage. |
| LibreOffice | Desktop document, spreadsheet and presentation editing, including offline work. | Test complex templates, formatting and Excel VBA. File support varies with the features each document uses. |
Keep business email working through the next outage
If you want to stay on Microsoft 365, evaluate a separately hosted email continuity service. Configure it in advance and test whether staff can sign in and send and receive messages when Exchange or Microsoft sign-in is unavailable.
An archive or backup may help recover messages. Live mail continuity needs a working delivery and access route.
Keep web enquiries and lead notifications available through a CRM or dashboard with a separate sign-in. Agree a fallback phone or messaging channel for urgent customer work, and test it with the team.
For a migration, pilot real mailboxes, aliases, calendars, mobile devices, shared inboxes and website mail first. Check retention and data-processing terms, back up data, and plan the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC changes and rollback before switching the domain.