"This action is not allowed by your organization" in Outlook Android app managed by Intune

[Rlwakefield]

Alright. So I am posting this here because this is a very specific issue to the Outlook Mobile application and when it is managed by Intune. I am hoping to see whether this is an issue with a specific model of phone or whether this across all Android phones. (NOTE: I have been able to replicate this issue as many times as I need to.)

So I have been dealing with the above error in my title for quite some time now and I finally had enough and decided to go ahead and figure out what in the world is going on. After about 30 minutes of troubleshooting, I think I finally figured out what is causing me to get this error. So below are all of the test scenarios of the steps that I performed. (NOTE: I am using a Samsung Galaxy S8+ and using Knox with Intune.)

Scenario 1

1. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
2. Open Outlook back up.
3. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.
4. Go to an email and open it up.
5. Go to forward the email then discard it immediately.
6. Go back to create a blank email and it works.
7. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
8. Open Outlook back up.
9. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.

Scenario 2

1. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
2. Open Outlook back up.
3. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.
4. Go to an email and open it up.
5. Go to reply to the email and open up the fully reply screen.
6. Discard the email reply.
7. Go back to create a blank email and it works.
8. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
9. Open Outlook back up.
10. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.

Scenario 3

1. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
2. Open Outlook back up.
3. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.
4. Pull down to refresh my email list.
5. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.

Scenario 4

1. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
2. Open Outlook back up.
3. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.
4. Go to an email and open it up and close it right away.
5. Go back to create a blank email and it works.
6. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
7. Open Outlook back up.
8. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.

Scenario 5

1. Go to my recent apps and close everything.
2. Open Outlook back up.
3. Go to create a blank new email, get the error.
4. Go to my calendar and start creating a new event.
5. Cancel the new event creation.
6. Go back to mailbox and tap to create a blank new email, get the error.

So what this is telling me is that whenever I go and close the Outlook App through my recent apps screen, it breaks the new blank email functionality. However, I will note that I also tested the creation of a new contact as well as a new event and both of those worked perfectly fine.

So I was hoping that I could enlist the help of some of the other users on here and helping me to determine whether this is an issue with the Android or possibly something more specific to my phone make/model, or even as deep as my OS or software (i.e. Knox). So if you are experiencing this issue or you can go through the steps that I stated above and you are able to replicate the problem (and remember that your Outlook needs to be managed by Intune as this issue doesn't happen outside of Intune managed Outlook app), please help me out here. You can do so by responding in the following format.

• Phone Make/Model: 
• Phone OS Version:
• Were you able to replicate the issue with all above scenarios? If not, which ones were you able to replicate?

Thanks again to anyone who can help. Would be ever so grateful for any and all help and insight. 🙂

[#2]

@Rlwakefield 

Hey, I have the same issue and can replicate each of those scenarios.

Samsung Galaxy S9, Android V9

[#3]

After digging deeper, we believe the issue to be related to application protection policy. Granted I have found a bunch of other issues and serious annoyances with the application protection policies, but I will save that for another day.

Either way, I will follow up with our exchange admin and our tech support contact. Update you soon.

[#4]

I have the same situation with Samsung Galaxy 8+ with Intune app policy. (not using Knox). Im not getting complaints from my user base and I manage Exchange and Intune so I know this is not expected behavior. Clearly a bug with Intune App Policy and Outlook for IOS/Android, question is..... is it only happening on Samsung devices? I have been dealing with this for over a year and have had enough. I'm about to move everyone back to Airwatch MDM.

[#5]

I can tell you right now this isn't happening on iOS as I had an iOS device I tried to recreate this on and couldn't do so no matter how hard I tried. I haven't had a non-Samsung device to test this out on yet, but I would definitely definitely be interested if someone does have a non-Samsung device to test this out on and let us know what happens.

[#6]

@Ryan_Wakefield  I suspect that you are correct and this is probably limited to Samsung devices running Android.  If this was impacting iPhone's and a wide array of Android devices I would have tons of tickets coming my way complaining that the user can't create emails on their mobile device.  We have forced everyone over to use Outlook for IOS/Android specifically so we could implement App Protection Policies with Intune.  Also so far in this thread it seems limited to Samsung phones so far.  I'm definitely interested in hearing if anyone is having this issue that doesn't have a Samsung phone.   

[#7]

@Rlwakefield 

I had the same issues with android users - but not with all.

The difference on my users: some had onprem mailboxes/users, and some were online.

The issue only happened with onprem users! 

This is a common issue with intune app protection policies, they dont work with onprem mailboxes/users.

Hope to help you with that

Marius

[#8]

The issue is that Microsoft outsourced the android outlook app to some third party to save money. It is garbage and just branded Microsoft Outlook.

That team has been dilly dallying for years but did not fix it.

This and so many other issues.

Wish I could get back the Windows Phone app.

Hopefully the outlook web apps on android will start supporting multiple accounts some day and we do not have to use this.

[#9]

@Rlwakefield You can check this site..

:

https://not.justsolutionsproducts.com/fixed-this-action-is-not-allowed-by-your-organization-in-outlo... 

[#10]

@Giokaiopayou are mixing things up.

Windows is Windows and Android is Android, and never the twain shall meet

[#11]

@Rlwakefield I had the same error message but a different scenario.  For me it was opening hyperlinks embedded in email on a Samsung phone. 

The fix was to set the default browser on Android and in Outlook. 

Step 1 

In Samsung settings search for Browser and then select Internet under Apps and App info search result. Under defaults select the browser to be the default. For me it is Chrome.

Step 2

In Outlook select your profile picture and then the cog wheel for the Settings menu. Scroll down to Open links in, then select Default browser.

Force close Outlook and reopen it again. Test a hyperlink in an email.

[#12]

@Paul996 they are two different things

Anyway, I gave up on it long ago. Microsoft recommended to use gmail instead of Outlook Live mail. I decided to use outlook Lite android app from Microsoft India branch instead. 

[#13]

@Conor_Lynch i fixed this by installing Microsoft edge and signing into the same work account on Edge as is in Outlook. 

I believe if you want to use Chrome or some other browser you would need to edit the app protection policy to use an unmanaged browser so that it is allowed.