The inbox that would not load | The Receipts - Dataspheres AI

The inbox that would not load THE RECEIPTS The inbox that would not load November 12, 2026 The inbox that would not load The inbox that would not load — On...

The inbox that would not load THE RECEIPTS The inbox that would not load November 12, 2026 The inbox that would not load The inbox that would not load — On Thursday, November 12, 2026, Microsoft 365 users across the Americas could not reach their mailboxes — Microsoft’s first public post came at 12:54 p.m. Eastern — By 1:07 p.m. it said users in any region may be affected — At 2:31 p.m. it named a cause: servers unexpectedly unavailable The outage, in numbers The outage, in numbers 130,000 problem reports for Outlook on Downdetector just after 1 p.m. Eastern, nearly 46,000 reports for Microsoft 365 on the same tracker, more than 450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial seats, more than, as of January 2026 99.9% the monthly uptime Microsoft’s agreement sets for its mail service Thursday, post by post Thursday, post by post 12:54 p.m.: Microsoft says it is investigating mailbox access in the Americas 1:07 p.m.: it says users in any region may be affected 1:35 p.m.: it reports elevated load on part of its infrastructure 1:48 p.m.: it begins moving connection traffic across its worldwide network 2:12 p.m.: it pauses all deployments and restarts affected servers 2:31 p.m.: it says a number of servers were unexpectedly unavailable What Microsoft says went wrong What Microsoft says went wrong What Microsoft says went wrong What Microsoft says went wrong What Microsoft says went wrong What runs on these machines What runs on these machines — Exchange Online is the Microsoft service that holds mailboxes for organizations — Outlook is the program most people use to read that mail — Microsoft reported more than 450 million paid commercial seats in January 2026 — Teams had a separate problem in North America earlier Thursday, which Microsoft said it restored What 99.9 percent allows What 99.9 percent allows 99.9% the monthly uptime in Microsoft’s service level agreement for Exchange Online 43 min the downtime 99.9 percent allows in a 30-day month, about 97 min from Microsoft’s first post to its 2:31 p.m. post, with the incident still open 30 days in November The refund table The refund table — Below 99.9 percent uptime in a month, the agreement credits 25 percent of that month’s fee — Below 99 percent it credits 50 percent, and below 95 percent it credits 100 percent — Downtime is counted per user, in minutes, when mail cannot be sent or received with Outlook on the web — From the agreement dated December 1, 2025 The refund is not automatic The refund is not automatic November 12: the incident Next: the customer must submit a claim to Microsoft support The claim gives the time and duration of the downtime and the number and location of affected users December 31: a claim for a November incident is due Within 45 days, typically: Microsoft processes it January 22: nearly ten hours January 22: nearly ten hours — On January 22, 2026, Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services failed for nearly 10 hours — Microsoft acknowledged it at 2:37 p.m. Eastern and reported access restored at 12:33 a.m. — Its explanation: “a portion of service infrastructure in North America that is not processing traffic as expected” — Microsoft has not linked that outage to Thursday’s Microsoft’s own record, by quarter Microsoft’s own record, by quarter — Microsoft publishes one worldwide uptime figure per quarter — Fourth quarter of 2025: 99.954 percent — First quarter of 2026: 99.526 percent, about 614 minutes down, just over ten hours — Second quarter of 2026: 99.994 percent What the quarterly number does not mean “Claims cannot be made based on quarterly performance nor across multiple workloads.” — Tony Redmond, Office 365 for IT Pros, April 22, 2026, on the first-quarter figure. The agreement is measured for each service, each month. Five of the last six quarterly figures Microsoft published were above 99.9 percent What is not known yet What is not known yet — Microsoft had not declared the incident resolved in its 2:31 p.m. Eastern post — It has not said why the servers became unavailable — It promises a preliminary review within 48 hours of resolving a broad incident — A final review follows within five business days The promise is 99.9 percent, and the refund takes a claim The promise is 99.9 percent, and the refund takes a claim Microsoft’s agreement sets 99.9 percent uptime a month for its mail service, about 43 minutes of allowed downtime in November. Thursday’s status posts span 97 minutes with the incident still open. The agreement credits 25 percent of the month’s fee below 99.9 percent, and only to a customer who files a claim by the end of the following month. Microsoft owes a preliminary review within 48 hours of resolving the incident. This is a reading of the record on the afternoon of November 12, 2026. Stay up to date with Dataspheres AI Stay up to date with Dataspheres AI Sign up and get the Dataspheres AI Weekly: the week's key stories and what to watch next. dataspheres.ai/signup Scan to sign up