Office365 "GettingStatus" and "Pending" Message Trace

Question

Hello. When performing a message trace for an email address, the status says "GettingStatus" or "Pending" instead of delivered and emails aren't coming through.

The status "GettingStatus" lasts for about an hour, then moves to the "Pending" stage.

Messages are delivered with a delay of 2 to 4 hours.

Is there a way to resolve that?

Thank you

Answer 1

Hello, @Saule Niyazbayeva,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

In Office 365/Exchange Online, message traces are processed asynchronously. When you run a trace soon after sending/receiving a message, you might see statuses like “GettingStatus” or “Pending” because the system is still gathering the underlying log data. However, since you’re seeing that messages themselves are delayed by hours, it’s worth investigating further.

This delay could occur for a few reasons:

• Microsoft 365 is still in the process of determining the next steps for the message, such as routing it to the intended recipient, scanning it for security threats, or other internal processes.
• The email may still be on route to its final destination or awaiting actions like spam checks or delivery to the user's inbox.
• There could be a temporary issue causing a delay in updating the status. This could be network-related or tied to system performance.

Usually, checking again in a few minutes will show the updated status, such as "Delivered," "Deferred," "Bounced," or "Failed."

You can also check if the delay is related to the mail flow by following the steps below.

1. Confirm whether the delay is isolated to messages traced for one address or if it’s a broader issue affecting many users.  
2. Look into any transport rules, connectors, or mail flow configurations that might be introducing latency. For example, if your environment has custom routing, spam filtering, or third‐party security appliances in front of your mailbox, these might sometimes cause processing delays.  
3. Use the Exchange admin center (or PowerShell with Get-MessageTrace and Get-MessageTraceDetail) to see if the delay is reflected consistently across all messages or just some.

Moreover, Exchange Online delivers messages to the user's mailbox after passing through multiple Exchange servers. Message Trace is displayed when the message cannot be retrieved at the time of search (delayed). More information can be found About '?{$_.status -like "GettingStatus"}' of Get-MessageTrace - Microsoft Q&A.

After verifying that the asynchronous nature of the message trace report is not the origin of your issue, and that the delay is consistently affecting actual message delivery, it may be time to submit a support ticket to Microsoft. Providing detailed trace results and troubleshooting results can help Microsoft identify whether the issue is caused by infrastructure performance, misconfiguration, or external routing factors.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click on “Accept answer” as it could help other members of the Microsoft Q&A community who have similar questions and are looking for solutions.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Best Wishes,

Alex Zhang