Multi Function Printers and SMTP Auth deprecation

Question

Multi Function Printers and SMTP Auth deprecation

Rayner, June 65

We are preparing for the 2025 SMTP Auth deprecation. We have a number of multi-function printers that need to be able to scan and send to external email addresses.

According to this article

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow-best-practices/how-to-set-up-a-multifunction-device-or-application-to-send-email-using-microsoft-365-or-office-365

Option 1 SMTP Auth is the option that's going to be deprecated

Option 2 Direct Send won't support sending to external email addresses

That leaves us with

Option 3 Configure a Connector for SMTP Relay

The general recommendation is to set up a on premise Exchange Server and relay email from the MFPs. Is there a way to do this that both supports external senders and avoids setting up on premise infrastructure?

Anonymous

2024-08-21T05:17:23.3066667+00:00

Hello, @Rayner, June

It's been a long time since I've heard from you, have you solved your problem yet? Did my previous reply help you？ If it was useful, you can mark it as an answer. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Anonymous

2024-08-23T08:20:51.21+00:00

Hi @ ,Rayner, June

Just checking in to see if the below answer helped. If this answers your query, please don’t forget to click "Accept Answer" which might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further query do let us know.
Andreas Hähnel 0 Reputation points

2026-07-30T22:30:13.1533333+00:00
Adding a practical note, since the accepted answer suggests running an

on-premises Exchange server purely as a relay. That works, but it means

maintaining a full Exchange installation, including patching and certificates,

for the sole purpose of forwarding printer mail. For most environments that is

a lot of overhead.

Three alternatives worth considering:

Exchange Online direct send with a connector and a static public IP. No authentication needed, but it only delivers to your own tenant.

A local relay that accepts plain SMTP and forwards over OAuth2 via the Graph API. Devices keep their existing IP and port, nothing on the device side changes.

An external SMTP service, if sending through a third party is acceptable for your data protection requirements.

Full disclosure: I build one of the tools in category 2, https://SMTPly.app , so treat

this as a pointer rather than a recommendation. The category matters more than

the product. The key question for any option is whether the mail has to stay

inside your own tenant, because that rules out most external services.

Note that the IIS SMTP service is no longer an option going forward. It has

been removed from Windows Server 2025.

Answer accepted by question author

0 additional answers

Your answer

Anonymous

2024-08-21T05:17:23.3066667+00:00

Hello, @Rayner, June

It's been a long time since I've heard from you, have you solved your problem yet? Did my previous reply help you？ If it was useful, you can mark it as an answer. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Anonymous

2024-08-23T08:20:51.21+00:00

Hi @ ,Rayner, June

Just checking in to see if the below answer helped. If this answers your query, please don’t forget to click "Accept Answer" which might be beneficial to other community members reading this thread. And, if you have any further query do let us know.
Andreas Hähnel 0 Reputation points

2026-07-30T22:30:13.1533333+00:00

Adding a practical note, since the accepted answer suggests running an

on-premises Exchange server purely as a relay. That works, but it means

maintaining a full Exchange installation, including patching and certificates,

for the sole purpose of forwarding printer mail. For most environments that is

a lot of overhead.

Three alternatives worth considering:

Exchange Online direct send with a connector and a static public IP. No authentication needed, but it only delivers to your own tenant.

A local relay that accepts plain SMTP and forwards over OAuth2 via the Graph API. Devices keep their existing IP and port, nothing on the device side changes.

An external SMTP service, if sending through a third party is acceptable for your data protection requirements.

Full disclosure: I build one of the tools in category 2, https://SMTPly.app , so treat

this as a pointer rather than a recommendation. The category matters more than

the product. The key question for any option is whether the mail has to stay

inside your own tenant, because that rules out most external services.

Note that the IIS SMTP service is no longer an option going forward. It has

been removed from Windows Server 2025.

Answer 1

Anonymous

Hi，@Rayner, June

Thanks for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

As per your request, I checked the official Microsoft documentation and as you mentioned, it is recommended to set up a Exchange Server to relay emails from external sources.

This is set up to ensure the security of emails from external sources.

If my answer is helpful to you, please mark it as the answer so that other users can refer to it. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Rayner, June 65 Reputation points

2024-08-26T13:06:26.9233333+00:00

Hi Bruce. Thanks for your answer. We were really hoping that there was an alternative because we're trying to move away from on premise infrastructure, particularly when we're doing this primarily to support multi-function printers.

Regards,

June
Anonymous

2024-08-27T02:35:23.11+00:00

Hi，@Rayner, June

It's nice to hear back from you.

I understand your need very well, but we are Microsoft tech support and we can't offer anything other than the official Microsoft method. I hope you can support and understand.

If my answer helps you, please mark it as answer.