Share via

Steps to perform an extended message trace in Office 365

  • Article

In this article, we will look at the steps to perform an extended message trace in Office 365.

What is Message Trace?

Message trace is similar to message tracking in Exchange 2010. By using this we would be able to track/trace an email which was already sent thru a mailbox which resides in the Office 365 cloud.

In order to perform a message trace, perform the following actions:

Login to the Office 365 Admin portal and click on the Admin icon.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track12.png?w=600&h=199 

Scroll all the way down to Admin and click on Exchange.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track21.png?w=600&h=514 

 Navigate to mail flow and select message center as shown below.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track31.png?w=600&h=358 

It will take you to the message tracking center. Now specify the start and end date.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track4.png?w=600&h=462

Select the date range.

Note: The tracking results through EAC will be displayed only for the last 7 days.

If you want to see the message tracking results for more than 7 days, then we can export them in a csv file and see the results.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track5.png?w=600&h=158 

Also, we have an option to trace the emails based upon the message delivery status which I find to be very useful.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track6.png?w=600&h=340 

The final result will be displayed as below.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track7.png?w=600&h=132

 

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track8.png?w=600 

Also, we have an option to see the pending and already completed traces.

https://exchangequery.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/track9.png?w=600

Note:

By default, the message tracking logs will be available only for the past 90 days. If your organization would like to extend this period, then it's better to open a case with Microsoft and extend the tracking period for the same.