Most people are talking about the fact Microsoft 365 is down and guessing why. I'm going to tell you what I did while it was down.
What happened on my end
On Thursday, after fielding calls from clients saying their email was down, I cursed myself for not setting up my own Outlook with cached email.
What this means in plain English
Cached mode is an Outlook setting that keeps a copy of your mail on your own computer. When Microsoft's side goes down, new mail won't come in and nothing will go out, but you can still open and search the messages you already have. Without it, you're staring at an empty inbox until the service comes back.
It's a small setting. You only notice whether you have it on the day you need it.
What I did instead
So I put the time to use.
I added a status bar to the top of nautalex.com that checks major services like Microsoft. Next time something big goes down, you can check our homepage first and know whether it's just you.
I built a new Behind the Headlines section on the site, tied to all my social posts, so the longer versions live in one place.
I started a weekly newsletter. Plain-language security alerts and IT tips for Ontario businesses. You can sign up on the homepage.
I used AI to build a daily brief that pulls my email, Teams and to-dos into one page.
And I went to the gym. I wasn't planning on it, so I didn't wear my Garmin watch. If it's not in Garmin, did it really happen?
Where I land
Day one was still pretty productive. Let's see what day two brings. I did wear the Garmin today.
What to do: everyone
When email stops working, check nautalex.com before you restart anything. If the status bar says Microsoft is having trouble, it isn't your computer.
Ask whoever looks after your computers whether Outlook is set up with cached email.
If the outage drags on, pick the jobs that don't need email and get them done.
Questions to ask your IT provider
Is Outlook on our computers set up with cached email?
When Microsoft has an outage, how will you let us know?
Is there anything we can still do in the office while email is down?
What have you been doing, and what are you planning to do today?
Tell me where you land on LinkedIn or X.
Contact Nautalex to see how we can help you with keeping your office working when Microsoft goes down.
