Reporting features and troubleshooting tools
Microsoft Exchange Online offers a variety of reporting features both in and out of the Exchange admin center (EAC).
Reporting features
Exchange Online customers can access reports in the Microsoft 365 admin center, by downloading an Excel reporting workbook, or by using web services.
Reporting in the Microsoft 365 admin center
There are reports on the Reports page in the Microsoft 365 admin center that provide summary information about mailboxes and groups. For example, one report lists the number of groups created and deleted by day, week, month, or year. There are also summary reports for new and deleted mailboxes, and active and inactive mailboxes.
Additionally, the Reports page in the Microsoft 365 admin center contains messaging data reports, which provide information about message traffic, spam and malware detections, and messages affected by Exchange Transport Rules or Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention. The enhanced reports for protection, rules, and DLP offer an interactive reporting experience for Exchange Online admins. These reports provide summary data and the ability to drill down into details about individual messages.
For more information about which reports are available with each subscription, see Reports. For more detailed information about the Reports page in the Microsoft 365 admin center, see View and download reports about service usage in Office 365 and Use mail protection reports to view data about malware, spam, and rule detections.
Reporting using the Excel reporting workbook
You can also use the Excel 2013 reporting workbook to view summary reports with drill-down capabilities. However, we recommend using the enhanced Microsoft 365 admin center reports instead. The Excel 2013 reporting workbook is planned to be deprecated in the future. For more overview information and links to download and install the workbook, see the following download page. For information about how to use the workbook, see Mail Protection Reports Using the Excel Reporting Workbook.
Reporting using web services
Access to both summary and detailed reports about mailboxes, groups, and messaging data is available by using the REST/OData Tenant Reporting web service, which is a programmatic interface that lets you create custom reports. For more information, see Office 365 Reporting web services.
Reporting features and troubleshooting tools in the EAC
The following reporting features and troubleshooting tools are available in the Exchange admin center.
Trace an email message
The message trace feature lets you, as an administrator, follow email messages as they pass through your Exchange Online service. It helps you determine whether a targeted email message was received, rejected, deferred, or delivered by the service. This lets you efficiently answer your users' questions and troubleshoot mail flow issues, and alleviates the need to contact technical support for assistance.
Important
For troubleshooting general issues and trends, use the reporting tools to obtain such data. For single point specifics where details are needed about a message, use the message trace tool.
For more information about the message trace feature, see Trace an Email Message.
Auditing reports
You can use audit logging to troubleshoot configuration issues by tracking specific changes made by administrators and to help you meet regulatory, compliance, and litigation requirements. Exchange Online provides two types of audit logging:
Administrator audit logging records any action performed by an administrator. This can help you troubleshoot configuration issues or identify the cause of security-related or compliance-related problems.
Mailbox audit logging records whenever a mailbox is accessed by someone other than the person who owns the mailbox. This can help you determine who has accessed a mailbox and what they've done.
For more information about audit logging, see Auditing Reports.
Unified Messaging reports
You can use these reports to monitor and troubleshoot Unified Messaging (UM) in your Exchange Online organization. For more information, see Run Reports for Voice Mail Calls.
Feature availability
To view feature availability across plans, standalone options, and on-premises solutions, see Exchange Online service description.