Last updated: Nov. 13, 2026; 12:25 p.m.

Update #5: Nov. 14, 2026; 10:00 a.m.

Microsoft reports that their recent service outage has now been resolved. According to Microsoft, the cause of the outage was not related to cybersecurity, AI, or agent technologies. The City’s Department of Information Technology has started its own internal testing to verify that all City systems are continuing to function as expected.

For residents: Microsoft indicates that all emails sent by their customers during the outage should be succefully delivered. However, if by midday Monday you have not received an expected acknowledgement of time-sensitive or critical emails you sent during the outage, we recommend a follow-up communication."  

Update #4: Nov. 13, 2026; 12:25 p.m.

The City has seen substantial improvement in the stability of Microsoft systems like email, calendar, and document storage. The City remains open for business, and DIT will continue to monitor the situation throughout the weekend.

Update #3: Nov. 13, 2026; 7:45 a.m.

The ongoing Microsoft outage continues to impact City services. While all City departments remain open for business today (Nov. 13), some services may be delayed or postponed until the outage is resolved. 

• Critical services provided by departments like Police, Fire, and 911 all remain operational and ready to respond to emergencies. 
• While Microsoft works to resolve the outage, residents should contact the City via telephone. Phone numbers for departments can be found on the front page of rva.gov in the ”Explore Our City” section.  
• Residents should anticipate delays to in-process, non-emergency requests and, if possible, are asked to wait until the outage has been resolved before opening new requests. 
• At this time the City does not believe any staff or resident data has been lost, but will DIT will continue to monitor systems in the days following restoration 

From Microsoft’s latest update at 7 a.m.: : 

We’re seeing encouraging recovery progress in Europe, with service availability and email delivery performance improving across a growing portion of affected Microsoft 365 infrastructure. Japan remains comparatively more stable, while North America is also improving; however, some users may still experience intermittent issues as recovery actions continue. 

We're focused on addressing the remaining areas of disruption and improving service consistency across affected regions. Reducing email queues and backlogs remains a priority, and the extended 48-hour email timeout window remains in place to help protect delayed messages as delivery catches up. 

At this time, we have no evidence of malicious activity associated with this incident. We will continue to treat this with urgency until full mitigation, and we will share a full Post-Incident Report with root cause and defense-in-depth actions after mitigation is complete. 

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La interrupción de los servicios de Microsoft sigue afectando los servicios de la Ciudad de Richmond. Aunque todos los departamentos municipales permanecen abiertos hoy, 13 de noviembre, algunos servicios podrían presentar retrasos o posponerse hasta que se resuelva la interrupción.

• Los servicios esenciales, tales como la Policía, el Departamento de Bomberos y la línea 911, siguen funcionando normalmente y están listos para responder a emergencias.
• Mientras Microsoft trabaja para resolver la interrupción, se pide a los habitantes que se comuniquen por teléfono con las oficinas municipales. Los números de teléfono de todos los departamentos se encuentran en la página principal de rva.gov, en la sección «Explore Our City».
• Se pide a los habitantes que esperen a que se resuelva la interrupción antes de presentar nuevas solicitudes no urgentes de servicio; se espera una demora en la resolución de solicitudes no urgentes que ya están en trámite.

Actualización recibida de Microsoft a las 7 a.m.:

Hasta este momento, la administración municipal no cree que se hayan perdido datos de su personal ni de los habitantes de la Ciudad; sin embargo, nuestros funcionarios seguirán monitoreando sus sistemas durante los días posteriores al restablecimiento del servicio. 

Estamos observando avances alentadores en la recuperación en Europa. La disponibilidad de los servicios y la entrega de correos electrónicos están mejorando cada vez más a través de la infraestructura afectada de Microsoft 365. Japón sigue mostrando una mayor estabilidad en comparación con otras regiones, aunque la situación también está mejorando en América del Norte; sin embargo, algunos usuarios podrían seguir experimentando problemas intermitentes mientras continúan las labores de recuperación.

Nos estamos concentrando en resolver las interrupciones que aún persisten y en mejorar la estabilidad del servicio en las regiones afectadas. Reducir la cantidad de correos electrónicos pendientes de entrega sigue siendo una prioridad. Se mantiene el plazo

ampliado de 48 horas antes de que caduquen los intentos de entrega, para ayudar a proteger los mensajes retrasados mientras se ponen al día las entregas.

Por el momento, no tenemos indicios de actividad maliciosa relacionada con este incidente; seguiremos trabajando con urgencia hasta resolverlo por completo. Una vez concluidas esas labores, compartiremos un informe completo posterior al incidente que incluirá la causa raíz y las medidas que se tomaron para reforzar las distintas capas de protección.

Update #2: Nov. 12, 2026; 6:40 p.m.

The large-scale Microsoft outage continues to impact City services across many departments. DIT continues to monitor Microsoft’s work to resolve the ongoing issues. From Microsoft’s latest update at 6:06 p.m.:

We've begun returning a portion of the affected servers to service, and they're remaining stable so far. We’ve also shifted traffic and connections to alternative pathways wherever possible and have observed limited recovery in some regions.

We've streamlined our recovery process to expedite returning the remaining affected servers to service. To further support recovery, we're implementing protective traffic management measures in a specific location to reduce load on the affected infrastructure, and we'll expand these measures to additional locations if we observe positive results. As capacity is restored, users may experience a gradual recovery as their clients reconnect to the service.

Update #1: Nov. 12, 2026; 3:37 p.m.

The City is experiencing service disruptions due to a nationwide Microsoft outage. DIT is working with Microsoft to resolve the issue. Updates will be shared as available.