Outlook rule sending Server Auto Reply on incoming message does not show in Sent Folder

Question

_{Tuesday, July 3, 2018 2:20 PM}

I am aware that by design an Outlook rule sending a server Auto Reply on incoming message does not show in Sent Folder.

Can this behaviour be amended or configured in some way so that the end user can view auto replies that have been sent by the server in the name of the user mailbox?

Changing the default save to folder in the Options tab when setting up the template email to be used for auto reply does not leave a message in the designated folder. 

Is the server side auto reply sent a message class object of type IPM.Note?

If no obvious solutions exist, can somebody perhaps explain how is this behaviour (not saving a server side auto reply to any folder) determined?

All replies (7)

_{Thursday, July 5, 2018 8:14 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Hi grayman619,

The way to check mails which generated by Agent is: analyse it's mail header or by message tracking log, there doesn't exist a GUI to find them directly.

The command below will be useful to you, it will check recipient and find out which mails are generated by Mailbox Rules Agent:

Get-TransportService | Get-MessageTrackingLog -Recipients [email protected] | where{$_.MessageInfo -like "*Mailbox Rules Agent*"}

There is the list of message subject which generated by Mailbox Rules Agent rather then a normal user account:

Regards, 

Kyle Xu

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams.

_{Monday, July 9, 2018 1:58 AM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Hi grayman619,

We don't know the recipient on which mailbox server, so we cannot know this Event will exist on which one, as a result, I use "Get-TransportService" before "Get-MessageTrackingLog"

If you just have one mailbox server, you can use "Get-MessageTrackingLog" directly.

Regards,

Kyle Xu

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams.

_{Wednesday, July 4, 2018 6:07 AM}

Hi grayman619,

Do you mean: When you set a inbox rule like the picture below to auto reply mails, however this auto reply message doesn't appear in sender's Sent Items folder? 

Even though I don't find a article about it, but from my testing, I think it is by design:

When we open this message, we can see this mail is send from the sender who set a inbox rule to reply mails automatically, however when we open this mail's Mail Header, we can see this mail is generated by Mailbox Rules Agent. 

So, I think it is a normal phenomenon that this mails don't appear in sender's Sent Items folder, and we cannot make it appear in the sender's Sent Items folder.

Regards,

Kyle Xu

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams.

_{Wednesday, July 4, 2018 11:58 AM}

Thanks for your reply. Yes the autoreply emails I refer to are triggered using a rule on incoming email. Thanks for clarifying that it is by design that a user sending the autoreply is unable to see it in Sent folder. If a server side autoreply is sent, does Microsoft Exchange keep it in some form or another? What is the best way for Microsoft Exchange administrators to show that auto replies are being sent by Microsoft Exchange? 

Prior to posting I became aware of MessageTrackingLog in Exchange Management Shell and the various log files in text that Microsoft Exchange has available and  I did follow up on documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow/transport-logs/message-tracking to see what can be done.

Is there a neater out of the box solution to show that a specific autoreply has been sent rather than piecing together information from logs and powershell output?

_{Thursday, July 5, 2018 2:55 AM}

Hi grayman619,

From "server side", do you mean use Transport Rule?

As far as I know, we cannot use transport rule to reply mails automatically, the only rule related with auto reply is "Block the message with the explanation":

However, if you use this rule, the original mail's sender will know this mail isn't send from a normal user, because this reply message will be a NDR rather then a normal message:

All in all, if you want to find a mail which generated by Agent, you can only analyse it's mail header or by message tracking log. There doesn't exist a GUI to find them directly.

By the way, the command below may be a work around for you:

It will check [email protected]'s inbox and find out which mail is generated by Agent rather then a normal account.

Get-TransportService | Get-MessageTrackingLog -Recipients [email protected] | where{$_.MessageInfo -like "*Mailbox Rules Agent*"}

Regards, 

Kyle Xu

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams.

_{Thursday, July 5, 2018 6:17 AM}

By server side auto reply I mean "have server reply using a specific message". 

Yes the autoreply emails I refer to are triggered using a rule on incoming email. Thanks for clarifying that it is by design that a user sending the autoreply is unable to see it in Sent folder. If a server side autoreply is sent, does Microsoft Exchange keep it in some form or another? What is the best way for Microsoft Exchange administrators to show that auto replies are being sent by Microsoft Exchange? 

Prior to posting I became aware of MessageTrackingLog in Exchange Management Shell and the various log files in text that Microsoft Exchange has available and  I did follow up on documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/mail-flow/transport-logs/message-tracking to see what can be done.

Is there a neater out of the box solution to show that a specific autoreply has been sent rather than piecing together information from logs and powershell output?

_{Friday, July 6, 2018 5:39 PM}

Many thanks for your feedback and assistance. Is Piping  Get-TransportService | Get-MessageTrackingLog in the event there is more than one mailbox server that needs to be searched? kind of like for each mailbox server do Get-MessageTrackingLog ? For one mailbox server Get-MessageTrackingLog -Recipients [email protected] | where{$_.MessageInfo -like "*Mailbox Rules Agent*"} would work fine right?