Office 365 Mailbox Export to PST - Third Party Tools: What’s Your Experience?
Exporting Office 365 mailboxes to PST is still a common requirement in many Microsoft 365 environments, especially for backup, compliance, and migration scenarios. While Microsoft offers native options like Purview eDiscovery and Outlook export, many administrators also consider third-party tools when dealing with large mailboxes or bulk export requirements. In real-world scenarios, factors like speed, ease of use, permission handling, and consistency of exported data often influence the choice of tool. Some teams prefer native methods for compliance control, while others explore third-party solutions to simplify large-scale or repeated export tasks. For those working with Microsoft 365, what has your experience been with third-party PST export tools? Have they helped in your environment, or do you still rely mainly on Microsoft’s native options?
mail@mydomain is causing a cert mismatch error in all browsers for Outlook.com
Hello, I have created a CNAME for our users in my domain so that they can access webmail. For example, it's called mail.mycustomdomain.com, and it is directed to Outlook.com But when I try to visit mail.mycustomdomain.com, it shows a security warning and recommends going back. I can understand because the SAN name in the certificate presented by Outlook doesn't include my CNAME. Is there anything I can do as a workaround so our users can enter the CNAME without encountering a Certificate Mismatch Error? It is causing repeated calls to the helpdesk, and we would like them to use something simple they can remember. Thanks15 productivity features in the new Outlook for Windows
Hello, Outlook community. I’m Vicki Milton, a Principal Product Manager on the Outlook team. Over the last year, we’ve added important capabilities across areas such as offline support, shared mailboxes, and PST files. Alongside those milestones, we've continued to deliver smaller improvements that help people work more efficiently throughout the day. This article highlights 15 productivity features in the new Outlook for Windows that can help you stay organized, reduce routine effort, and keep important work moving. Mail features Email remains central to how many people manage communications, priorities, and follow-up. Outlook includes familiar tools for composing and organizing messages, along with newer capabilities that can help reduce friction and make inbox management more efficient. Pin a mail: Keep important messages easy to find. The Pin feature keeps a selected email at the top of your inbox so it remains visible as new messages arrive. This can be useful for items you need to reference often or do not want to lose track of, such as travel details, approvals, or active requests. By keeping priority messages in view, Pin can reduce time spent searching and help you stay focused on current work. Snooze a mail: Return messages when they are relevant again. Snooze lets you temporarily remove an email from your inbox and have it reappear at a time you choose. This can help keep your inbox focused on messages you can act on now while ensuring follow-up items come back when they are timely. It is particularly useful for requests that depend on additional information, scheduled tasks, or work you plan to handle during dedicated focus time. Add multiple categories at the same time: Organize messages with fewer steps. If you use categories to manage incoming mail, Outlook makes it possible to apply more than one category in a single action. This can help when you need to capture multiple types of context, such as project, priority, or follow-up status, without reopening menus repeatedly. It is especially useful when processing a large number of messages. Sweep: Reduce repetitive inbox cleanup. Sweep lets you create automatic actions for messages from a specific sender. For example, you can delete promotional mail after a set period, keep only the latest message in a thread, or move recurring updates to a folder. This can help reduce manual cleanup and keep your inbox more focused on items that need attention. Schedule Send: Write on your schedule and deliver at the right time. Schedule Send lets you prepare messages when it is convenient for you and send them later at a time that works better for the recipient. This can improve visibility, support more intentional communication, and reduce the need to rely on reminders or leave messages in Drafts. Simplified folder sharing: Share folders more simply. Sharing a mail folder has traditionally required extra permission steps, especially for nested folders. Now, when you share a folder, Outlook can automatically apply the visibility permissions needed for its parent folders. This can reduce setup effort, help avoid access issues for recipients, and make folder sharing easier to complete with confidence. Calendar and meeting features For many people, the workday is shaped by meetings, schedule changes, and the need to stay aligned on what comes next. Outlook includes calendar and meeting capabilities that can help simplify planning, reduce coordination overhead, and make follow-up easier. Follow a meeting: Stay informed without attending live. The Follow RSVP option lets you indicate that you will not attend a meeting but still want access to the recap. This can be helpful when schedules overlap or when a meeting is useful to monitor without joining in real time. It can help you stay connected to outcomes and shared materials while keeping your calendar more manageable. Save calendar views: Return to the calendar setup you need more quickly. Saved Views let you store specific calendar combinations and switch back to them without rebuilding the same view each time. This can save time for people who move frequently between personal, team, and project schedules. It also can make it easier to review the right set of calendars for different planning tasks. Improved meeting tracking: Work with meeting responses more efficiently. Outlook includes tools that make it easier for organizers to review and manage meeting responses. You can sort attendee lists, search for names in the Tracking view, and copy or download response details when needed. These capabilities can be especially useful for larger meetings where attendance information needs to be reviewed quickly. Meeting recap: Find follow-up materials in one place. After a Teams meeting, the calendar event in Outlook can surface a Meeting recap with links to the recording, transcript, and shared files. This can make it easier to review what was discussed, confirm details, or catch up afterward. By keeping these materials together, Meeting recap can reduce the time it takes to get oriented after a meeting. Filtered views: Reduce visual clutter in your calendar. Filters let you hide meetings you are not attending and limit the distraction of declined or informational events. This can make it easier to scan your schedule, identify conflicts, and focus on the meetings that need your attention. For people with full calendars, it can help make planning more straightforward. Change a recurring event: Update future meetings while preserving earlier ones. When plans change, Outlook lets you edit the current event and all following events in a recurring series. This can make it easier to adjust details such as time, location, or agenda going forward without changing the record of past meetings. It can simplify updates for organizers and reduce disruption for attendees. Personalization and settings Settings can play a practical role in day-to-day productivity. A few adjustments can make it easier to focus, move between accounts and calendars, and work in a way that fits your preferences. Here are several settings-related features that can help make Outlook feel more streamlined and manageable. Rename your email accounts: Make the right inbox easier to recognize. If you use multiple accounts in Outlook, you can assign each one a custom name. This can help you tell accounts apart more quickly, reduce the chance of sending from the wrong inbox, and make navigation simpler as you move between accounts during the day. Modern themes: Choose a look that supports comfort and clarity. Outlook includes theme and color options that let you tailor the experience to your preferences. Visual settings can influence readability and comfort, especially for people who spend much of the day in email and calendar. Options such as Dark Mode and color customization can help make the interface feel easier to use over time. Keyboard shortcuts: Keep familiar ways of working. In Outlook, you can choose the shortcut style you prefer in Settings. This can help you maintain existing habits, reduce adjustment time, and complete common tasks with fewer steps. For people moving from classic Outlook or Outlook on the web, shortcut flexibility can make the transition more consistent. These features reflect a broader effort to help people work more efficiently in the new Outlook for Windows. Whether you are managing a high volume of email, coordinating a full calendar, or tailoring the experience to match your workflow, these updates are designed to reduce effort and improve day-to-day productivity. For more information and step-by-step guidance, see the Microsoft Support articles and the Learning Path.
Microsoft Graph Webhook Filtering Using Custom MAPI Properties for Weather Messages
Hi everyone, I'm working on an integration that uses Microsoft Graph change notifications (webhooks) to receive notifications for new email messages in a mailbox. Our use case is specific to Weather messages generated by our Messaging platform. Currently, we subscribe to mailbox notifications and receive events for all incoming emails, which results in significant post-processing on our side. I'm looking for a way to perform server-side filtering so that only Weather-related messages trigger webhook notifications. Current Situation We use Microsoft Graph webhook subscriptions on mailbox messages. Weather messages are delivered as standard emails. Subject-based filtering is sufficient for our requirements. We would like to avoid processing every incoming email after receiving notifications. Proposed Approach We are considering stamping weather emails with a custom MAPI extended property when the message is created, for example: Message subject = Weather using a custom single-value extended property. Questions Can Microsoft Graph webhook subscriptions filter notifications based on custom MAPI extended properties? If not directly in the subscription, can $filter be used on message queries against these custom properties after receiving notifications? Has anyone successfully implemented a solution where a custom MAPI property acts as a service tag for weather messages? Are there any recommended alternatives for reducing webhook traffic when only a subset of messages is relevant? Would Outlook categories, message classes, or other Exchange attributes provide a better filtering mechanism than custom MAPI properties? Our goal is to identify weather messages reliably while minimizing unnecessary webhook notifications and mailbox processing. Any guidance, examples, or best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The New Outlook Notifications for email with rules not working. Missing features
I have to use the New Outlook to be prepared for the eventuality when Microsoft forces the change. I'm missing notifications for emails coming in when it has mailbox rules to organize it. The Notification Center in Windows is ok, but there should be a way in the rules to set a notification in a window like the Reminders window. being able to set a specific sound would be beneficial as well. I've had to resort to using Categories and constantly checking Outlook to see if I missed anything. This has resulted in missing many time-sensitive alerts and emails. Such as a Midnight internet outage at a business-critical building on my day off. Resulting in 6 hours of downtime during business rather than a resolution before business opening.Microsoft Wants PowerShell Developers to Change How They Download Microsoft Modules
A Microsoft blog describes some changes for PowerShell developers in terms of installing modules and the role of the Microsoft Artifact Registry (MAR). In a nutshell, Microsoft intends the MAR to be the go-to place to download first-party PowerShell modules and other artifacts. This solves the problem of potentially compromised modules found in the PowerShell Gallery, but MAR can’t work if it doesn’t contain the modules people use. https://office365itpros.com/2026/06/05/microsoft-artifact-registry/
need exchange se for hybrid environment
We have a hybrid Office 365 environment with an Exchange Server 2016 that no longer performs any role. It does not host any mailboxes and is not used as an SMTP relay. We would like to keep an Exchange installation solely for administrative purposes through the GUI. Questions: 1. Can we keep Exchange Server 2016 installed? 2. If we need to install Exchange Server Subscription Edition (SE), do we need licenses for this installation, considering that all our Office 365 licenses are Business licenses? Thank you.Outlook Cached Mode Repeatedly Re-syncs Mailbox After Restart (Starts Again Around 3.99 GB)
Hi everyone, I’m experiencing a strange Outlook Cached Exchange Mode issue with a Microsoft 365 mailbox after a recent Windows rebuild and wanted to see if anyone has seen similar behavior. Environment: Microsoft 365 mailbox (Exchange Online) Outlook for Microsoft 365 Version 2605 Build 16.0.20026.20076 64-bit Windows 11 25H2 Fresh OS rebuild performed twice New Outlook profile created Office completely reinstalled OST recreated multiple times Issue: When Cached Exchange Mode is enabled, Outlook starts downloading/synchronizing mail normally, and the OST file continues to grow correctly. However, after every reboot or Outlook restart, Outlook again shows “Downloading…” starting from around 3.99 GB. Important observations: Online Mode works perfectly OUTLOOK.EXE closes properly after exit OST file is NOT deleted and continues growing Sync slider changes (1 month, 1 year, all mail) make no difference Disabling Outlook indexing did not help New Outlook profile did not help Reinstalling Office did not help Problem only started after OS rebuild Before rebuild, same mailbox worked normally in Cached Mode No pending office or windows update. It does not appear to actually re-download the mailbox from scratch because the OST size keeps increasing, but Outlook repeatedly processes/downloads from around the same 3.99 GB point after restart. Has anyone seen: Cached Mode replaying synchronization repeatedly after restart? Similar behavior on recent Current Channel builds? Security/EDR products interfering with OST synchronization state? Any known regressions with Outlook Version 2605 Build 16.0.20026.20076? Any suggestions or similar experiences would be appreciated.
Is Office 365 E3 Developer free
Hi, My tenant had a license named "Office 365 E3 Developer" which allowed us to use Outlook / Exchange (among other Microsoft Office products). This license isn't from the Microsoft 365 Developer Program, which come with free licenses. This license costed CA$11.60 a month per user when we initially purchased it. On May 2, 2026 it still costs $11.60, but when I received my monthly invoice for this tenant, this license was free. I searched around to see whether this license became free recently, but I couldn't find any info on this. The links I found all say it's a paid license. I was wondering if there's any info on this to see why it became free? Or is it a mistake and Microsoft'll be charging us the next billing cycle? Jason
