Hi all,

I'm need help to understand the steps a mail goes through when an OOF rule is processed by the exchange as it seems to be acknowledging the incoming mails to have an automatic response but then dropping the response before it is sent.

I have a working exchange 2013 Std server. Mail works into and out of the organization. AutomaticReplies are enabled $True, AutoReply is enabled $True, AllowedOOFType is set to ExternalLegacy...however...when users enable their OOF automatic replies no response emails are being sent at all either internally nor externally.

Automated response rule processing by the exchange itself does seem to be triggered by the exchange but it is then dropping the mails and nothing gets sent. A message log track only ever shows two entries against a -Sender track on a mailbox when a user enables OOF. The EvendId on the process is only ever RECEIVE and there is never anything else like TRANSFER, SUBMIT or SEND.

We do however have 'dummy' mailboxes setup with outlook rules applied to them to send automated responses to people who email into a distribution list. This automated response rule processing on the mailbox side works 100%.

I've disabled the antivirus...why else would exchange not completely process or send an automatic reply message?

Thanks in advance,

Hi,

Though there is no fail eventID in message tracking log, I still suggest to check if there is any transport rule in your organization.

And tell us more about the 'dummy' mailboxes with outlook rules to send auto reply.

And in Exchange 2013, the only way to see or change the current configuration for automatic replying and forwarding to the Internet is via the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) with PowerShell commands. Refer to this document

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj657713%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Auto Reply Configuration on mailbox

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638217%28v=exchg.150%29.aspx

Best Regards.

Hi Lynn-Li

I can confirm I am a member of the 'Organizational Management' and the 'Recipient management' roles in the Exchange ECP.

I've have run the following command to enable all required options...

Set-RemoteDomain Default -AutoReplyEnabled $true AutoForwardEnabled $true AllowedOOFType ExternalLegacy

I then ran the following command on my mailbox to set OOF...

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity me@mydomain.com -AutoReplyState Enabled -InternalMessage "Test internal OOF message" -ExternalMessage "Test external OOF message" -ExternalAudience All

I then sent an email to my mailbox from my personal Outlook.com email address. I can confirm the email message arrives in my company Exchange mailbox but I am still not getting any automatic reply message back to my Outlook.com mailbox!?

Regarding the 'dummy mailboxes'...

All that is happening there is we have 'dummy users' who are added to some distribution lists with Outlook running at all times for these users and an outlook rule running on those dummy accounts to reply with specific template to all mails sent into the DL of which those dummy users are a member. This works as it's fired off by Outlook.

There seems to be an issue with the exchange processing the auto reply rule...there are NO transport rules in place on the exchange!

As I mentioned if I run message tracking against -Sender when that sender has OOF enabled I can see messages with -MessageSubject 'Automatic Reply:' trying to be processed but these messages seem to be dropped before being sent or are being dropped by the exchange while attempting to send.

I disabled the antivirus protection on the exchange during ALL of the above testing...

This is really making no sense...I am at a loss here!

Thanks again,

durrie.