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We recently began migrating users from Exchange 2016 to Online. One of our mailboxes had external out of Office messages disabled when it was migrated. Now that mailbox is unable to send external oof messages. I have tried several of the consoles and powershell commands, all to no avail. When mailboxes are on-prem I can use the set-mailbox -<mailbox> -externaloofoptions external command. There is no corresponding command online.
Our remote domain has been set to both external and external/legacy.
I have used Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity <UserPrincipalName> -ExternalAudience All and other commands to turn on autoreplies, as well as a console to do the same, but I have not found a console or command that enables external auto replies.
I am about to the point of migrating the mailbox back to on-premise, modifying it and then migrating it back to the cloud.
Any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
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I'll add, we have this issue and not only does ExternalAudience stay as "None" in PowerShell no matter what, but when enabling external replies via Outlook/OWA, the setting reverts there too. It is locked on the mailbox as "None" so it seems.
FYI, today (Sept 10 2024) in EXO PowerShell, Set-Mailbox (against cloud-only and/or IsDirSynced=TRUE mailboxes) includes the -ExternalOofOption parameter and works with both possible values InternalOnly, External. I successfully used this and was pleased to see it solve our issue.
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Hi @Mike Elias1 , thanks for posting in our Q&A forum.
Have you tried the Parameters option -AutoReplyState Enabled? Example as follows:
Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity tony@contoso.com -AutoReplyState Enabled -ExternalMessage "External auto-reply message." -ExternalAudience All
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Hi @Jarvis Sun-MSFT , yes we have tried that. We are able to turn on internal notifications using this, but after running the command, externalaudience goes back to none.
Thank you for the reply.
@Mike Elias1 Thanks for your reply.
What is the result of running the Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration cmdlet, please provide more information as follows:
Thank you for the response.
See the text below for the results. Notice that external audience immediately returns to none, though all was selected in the command.
PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7> set-mailboxautoreplyconfiguration -id xxxxxxxxx -Externalaudience all -autoreplystate enabled
PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7> Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -id xxxxxxxxx
AutoDeclineFutureRequestsWhenOOF : False
AutoReplyState : Enabled
CreateOOFEvent : False
DeclineAllEventsForScheduledOOF : False
DeclineEventsForScheduledOOF : False
EventsToDeleteIDs :
EndTime : 6/28/2023 10:00:00 AM
ExternalAudience : None
ExternalMessage : <html>
<body>
I will be out of the office with limited access to email. If you need immediate assistance, contact xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you
</body>
</html>
InternalMessage : <html>
<body>
 I will be out of the office with limited access to email. If you need immediate assistance, contact xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you!
</body>
</html>
DeclineMeetingMessage :
OOFEventSubject :
StartTime : 6/27/2023 10:00:00 AM
Recipients :
ReminderMinutesBeforeStart : 0
ReminderMessage :
MailboxOwnerId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Identity : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
IsValid : True
ObjectState : Unchanged
Ok, I tried to add a comment to your response, but I don't see it here, so I will post it again. Apologies if it shows up twice.
I ran the command to turn on autoreplies with external audience set to all. I then ran the get-autoreply command, and external audience was set back to none again. See the text below.
Thank you for your assistance.
-Mike
PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7> set-mailboxautoreplyconfiguration -id xxxxxxxxx -Externalaudience all -autoreplystate enabled
PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7> Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -id xxxxxxxxx
AutoDeclineFutureRequestsWhenOOF : False
AutoReplyState : Enabled
CreateOOFEvent : False
DeclineAllEventsForScheduledOOF : False
DeclineEventsForScheduledOOF : False
EventsToDeleteIDs :
EndTime : 6/28/2023 10:00:00 AM
ExternalAudience : None
ExternalMessage : <html>
<body>
I will be out of the office with limited access to email. If you need immediate assistance, contact xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you
</body>
</html>
InternalMessage : <html>
<body>
 I will be out of the office with limited access to email. If you need immediate assistance, contact xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you!
</body>
</html>
DeclineMeetingMessage :
OOFEventSubject :
StartTime : 6/27/2023 10:00:00 AM
Recipients :
ReminderMinutesBeforeStart : 0
ReminderMessage :
MailboxOwnerId : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Identity : xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
IsValid : True
ObjectState : Unchanged
Thanks for your reply.
Since I can't reproduce your problem, in order to confirm if this is the cause of Exchange online environment, you can try to create a new mailbox in Exchange admin center and have a test with external audience set to all.
Otherwise, you can choose to migrate the mailbox back to on-premise and try again.
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Well, your 2nd suggestion is about where we are right now. Not exactly our preferred plan of action, but this forum was one of our last resorts before migrating back to on-prem.
Once we come to a conclusion and perform the actions I will post the results.
Thanks for all the help.
Just wanted to comment that I have seen this exact issue now first hand, in EXO. I'm not up for migrating the mailbox to on-premises though. Was surprised to see that solution offered. Did anyone ever make any traction with this issue?
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Posting under a different account than the original.
Sometimes, doing nothing will fix the issue. The person who could not auto-reply outside the organization took a position in a different area of the organization. That person received a new account and mailbox. Problem solved. (sort of)
Mike Elias.