Microsoft 365 outage: SmartHost hosting and email are not affected

Last updated: 16:42, Friday 13 November 2026 (Irish time)

Final update: Everything is working optimally. SmartHost customers’ email was not affected at any point during the Microsoft outage. We will continue to observe the situation.

Microsoft is having a worldwide outage affecting Microsoft 365, mainly Exchange Online (Outlook email) and the parts of Microsoft Teams that rely on it. It began on the afternoon of Thursday 12 November and is still ongoing. Microsoft has said it is not caused by a cyber attack and has not yet given a time for full recovery.

In short

• Your SmartHost services are working normally. Websites, email hosting, domains and DNS hosted with SmartHost run on our own systems and do not use Microsoft 365.
• Emails to and from SmartHost staff may be delayed. Our own office email, including support@smarthost.ie, uses Microsoft 365, so replies from our support team may arrive late.
• Need help now? Call us on (01) 901 9700, or open a ticket at support.smarthost.ie. Tickets opened there reach our team straight away.

Why SmartHost email and hosting are not affected

Email hosted with SmartHost runs on our own mail servers and our own mail filtering gateways in Ireland, managed by our own team. Your websites, DNS and domain services run on the same SmartHost infrastructure. None of these depend on Microsoft 365, so this outage does not reach them.

Many of our customers use Microsoft 365 and it is a good service. Every provider has outages, including us. What matters is planning for them, keeping essential services independent where we can, and keeping you informed while it happens.

Independently certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022

SmartHost’s Information Security Management System is certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 by West Assured, an INAB-accredited certification body (certificate 1025065-A/1, valid until 29 October 2028). The certified scope covers web hosting, domain registration, DNS services, SSL certificate provisioning, email hosting and our customer support services.

The standard requires us to manage information security risks in a documented way that is checked by external audit, including planning for disruption and for problems at the suppliers we rely on. Today is an example: while our office email is affected, our phone line and our support desk stay open, and the services you host with us carry on as normal.

You can view our ISO/IEC 27001 certificate and our policies in the SmartHost Legal Repository.

If your business uses Microsoft 365

• Do not resend messages. Microsoft says mail is delayed, not lost. It has extended how long email keeps retrying to 48 hours, so delayed messages should still arrive.
• Check Microsoft’s official status. Your Microsoft 365 administrator can follow the incidents EX1550543 and MO1550821 under Service health in the Microsoft 365 admin centre, or see status.cloud.microsoft.
• Watch out for scams. Fraudsters often take advantage of large outages with fake calls or emails offering to fix your account. Be wary of anyone who contacts you asking for your password or for remote access to your computer.
• Tell your customers how to reach you. If your email is down, a phone number or a note on your website helps people contact you.

If you would like to talk about where your business email is hosted, our professional email services page has more information, and our team is happy to answer questions.

Timeline (Irish time)

This is our final update. We will continue to observe the situation.

Friday 13 November

• 16:42 Final update: everything is working optimally. SmartHost customers’ email was unaffected throughout the Microsoft outage. We will continue to observe the situation.
• 16:16 No change: our email is still working normally, and Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 15:46 No change: our email is still working normally, and Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 15:16 New emails to our office are arriving normally again, within about a minute. Our support desk is sending normally. Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 14:46 Some emails sent to our office this morning are still arriving several hours late as Microsoft works through its backlog. Our support desk is sending normally. Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 14:16 No change: our email is still working normally, and Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 13:46 No change: our email is still working normally, and Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 13:16 No change: our email is still working normally, and Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 12:46 No change: our email is still working normally, and Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved.
• 12:16 Our support desk email is back to normal: a support notification sent at 12:03 arrived within seconds. Microsoft has not yet announced that the outage is fully resolved, so we are still monitoring.
• 11:46 Emails from our support desk are being delivered again: a test reply sent at 11:45 has been confirmed as received. Our own Microsoft 365 mailboxes are responding again and delayed emails from earlier this morning are now arriving. Microsoft has not yet said the outage is fully resolved, so some delays are still possible.
• 11:45 Signs of partial recovery: delayed emails to our office started arriving at about 11:35. Microsoft 365 is not fully fixed yet, and replies from our support team by email may still be delayed.
• 11:17 No change: Microsoft is still working on recovery. Replies from our support team by email remain delayed.
• 10:47 No change: Microsoft is still working on recovery. Replies from our support team by email remain delayed.
• 10:17 No new update from Microsoft since 09:28. Our tests still show intermittent connections to Microsoft’s mail service, and Microsoft 365 mailboxes are still not responding normally. Replies from our support team by email remain delayed. Phone support and support.smarthost.ie are working normally.
• 10:05 Our tests show Microsoft’s mail servers are still only partly reachable. Replies from our support team by email are still delayed. Phone support and support.smarthost.ie are working normally.
• 09:45 Microsoft 365 is still not fixed. Some of our connections to Microsoft’s mail service are getting through, but replies from our support team by email are still delayed.
• 09:28 Microsoft reports early signs of recovery, but capacity is not yet back to normal. It has extended how long email keeps retrying to 48 hours, so delayed mail should still arrive.
• 08:25 Microsoft says some users still cannot open their mailbox in Outlook on the web.
• 07:45 Microsoft reports better server stability after applying a fix.
• 07:27 Microsoft reports limited success with its fixes so far.
• 06:52 Emails from our support desk start failing to send because of the Microsoft outage.
• 06:31 Microsoft is testing traffic controls to steady its servers.

Thursday 12 November

• 16:17 Microsoft’s Exchange Online email service starts failing for users worldwide.