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These are the best ways to Change The Primary Email in Hybrid Environment for a user. This may happen when you move from an on Premise AD environment to a Hybrid one.

You look in admin.microsoft.com and the use has the wrong primary SMTP address but you can’t change it in the portal….

It is simple to change the Primary Email Address of an M365 user when your tenant is not being synced to your on-premises active directory, but if you are syncing to M365 with any of the following tools:

• Windows Azure Active Directory Sync (DirSync)
• Azure AD Sync (AADSync)
• Azure Active Directory Connect

Then you will be unable to change any of email addresses associated with that account, and you will get the following error:

How to Change The Primary Email of an Active Directory – Microsoft 365 user using ADUC

1. Open Active Directory Users and Computers
2. Ensure you have “Advanced Features” enabled from the view menu:
   

3. Double click on the user that you want to edit the email addresses for. (Note: You cannot search for the user. The attributes tab will not be available). You must manually search out the user.
4. To do this, find the user and then look at this users “Object” Tab. It will show you exactly where the user is in AD.
5. Go to the “Attribute Editor” tab.
6. Go to the “proxyAddresses” attribute and click edit.
7. Edit the email addresses as per your requirements. Note that the primary address (which is the address that the user will send emails from) is in uppercase “SMTP”.
   

How to change Change The Primary Email in Hybrid Environment using PowerShell

You can perform the same operation to Change The Primary Email in Hybrid Environmentusing Windows PowerShell, the basic syntax is like this:

Set-ADUser user -Add @{ProxyAddresses=”SMTP:[email protected]”}

The problem with running this command is that you may already have a primary SMTP address set and this will not stop you from adding another one. So first of all run:

get-aduser user -properties proxyaddresses | Select-Object Name,ProxyAddresses |fl

This will show you all the current proxy addresses for this user. If you want to remove an existing proxy address, you can use:

Set-ADUser user -Remove @{ProxyAddresses=”smtp:[email protected]”}

Items like Distribution Lists will work better. Now your user will have its primary SMTP Address set correctly in a hybrid environment!

Why would you want to check M365 Health status? A good example of when your users are experiencing issues with the M365 ecosystem, and you want to check to see if it is a system wide issue before you engage in a bunch of troubleshooting your specific tenant. This is one of the many ways to enhance your M365 tenant.

In the article I will show you three different ways to check M365 Health status. The good news is it can be automated or done manually. It is your choice. So, let’s get to it!

Check M365 Health Status Dashboard

The Microsoft 365 Health dashboard lets customers view insights about the service status, software update status, as well as security compliance. It also shows critical alerts about general service incidents and billing issues.

It is designed to show the health status of the M365 services you use including the health of your environment, software and device updates, security as well potential billing issues.

Sign Up for Health Status Alerts

This is a great automated way to receive updates when you Check M365 Health Status of your environment, Do the following to sign up for alerts:

1. Login to admin.microsoft.com.
2. Click on Health/Services Health and then customize in the top middle pane.
3. Choose which services you want to view:

4. Choose what service you want health status emails on:

Whenever there is an issue with one of those services that affect your tenant or region, you will get notified via email.

Check Tenant Release Status

The is a great way to check M365 Health Status too. Sometimes is not a question of a service failing or degrading performance. It could be that your region hasn’t had a service update that takes care of the issue you are having. Consider it like a firmware upgrade for your tenant.

Before checking the service version of your Intune tenant, it is important to know that Microsoft releases monthly service updates to Intune. These updates are rolled out to tenants in an order.

•              Day 1: Asia Pacific (APAC) gets the Intune updates.

•              Day 2: Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) gets the Intune updates.

•              Day 3: North America gets the Intune updates.

•              Day 4+: Intune for Government gets the updates.

It might not have got to your region yet. To check for your release version:

1. Sign into the Microsoft Intune Portal.
2. Navigate to Tenant Administration and now select Tenant Status.
3. Select the Tenant Details tab, and here you can find the Service release version of your Intune tenant.

Using these 3 ways to check M365 Health Status, you will be able to differentiate between any potential issue being caused by your specific tenant or if it is an issue that affects the M365 eco-system in your region!

Create Teams Chat Autoreply with Power Automate

Here is a great example of why you would want to Create Teams Chat Autoreply with PowerAutomate. Your organization has an email address that forwards to several people. If you work in any form of a support group, this is common. The only thing is that it renders MS Teams on that account useless. You need Teams though because you are probably using the phone functionality on that account.

Nobody logins directly into the forwarded account so if anyone sends a chat message withing the organization you will only hear about it later in an email. By that time the person is probably wondering why they haven’t received support yet. If you use Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) it is more secure.

Why You Can’t set an Out of Office Message

It is an account that is not directly accessed so why not just send an out of office reply to incoming message. It works for Teams, right. Well, the problem here is that Outlook and Teams go hand in hand. With an OOO set up whatever goes to Outlook will also go to Teams and vice versa.

It would be hilarious if your support email sent out a reply that this this channel is not monitored! Here’s how you set up an autoreply in MS Teams.

Steps To Use Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) to Create Teams Chat Autoreply

1. Go to https://make.powerautomate.com/ and sign in as the email account that is forwarded to your group if you are not already.
2. On the left-hand side click “+Create”
3. Choose Automated Cloud flow.
4. Give your flow a name and search and choose the trigger “When a new chat message is added”.
5. Click Create.
6. You will be presented with a screen like this:

From Here you will add a step at a time by clicking on New Step. I will explain the flow in the next screenshots.

How the Flow Works

Power Automate can take almost anything you can do manually in M365 and automates it. A good example is when you Create Teams Chat Autoreply. The problem is that there is so much information you can automate is it hard to find documentation. Essentially the Output of a flow is an input to the next flow.

If the output from a flow has several values (like a search), it applies a “apply to each” step and will perform an iteration for you. My example only has one value. Creating the initial is ok, if you must go back and edit it, the “apply to each” becomes nested and it is a real pain. The flow I created is short, so I just recreate it every time in need to edit it. There is a way to remedy this but can show you in a future blog post.

Remember Each Output of one step is the input of the next.

Parse The Users Email Address (ObjectID)

The step in the screenshot below takes its input from the initial step of the flow (When a chat message is added). There are several possible items (Dynamic Content) you can pick from the message. The item you need to pick for this step is “Message Link”.

The next screenshots show how to parse the ObjectID’s from the Message Link Dynamic Content:

first(split(outputs(‘GetMessageLink’),’@unq’))

first(split(outputs(‘Parse2′),’_’))

last(split(outputs(‘Parse3′),’19:’))

Now we have the 2 possible Object ID’s to parse out of the message link content:

Here is an example of data is trying to get at:

It is grabbing the info between “19:” and “_”. That is the ObjectID you will need in the following steps.

The thing is depending on how teams register the chat in the message link it will either be what you parsed or not. The good news is the chat is only between two users (The MS Teams account set up as and autoreply through flow and the user). So, you will have to set up a condition but first we need to determine what the account set up for autoreply’s Object ID is….

Getting Object ID to Create Teams Chat Autoreply Account

This can be easily accomplished by going to admin.microsoft.com and search for the user you want to use for the autoreply and then export the information to a CSV file:

Using Condition in Teams Chat Autoreply Account

Then look at the ObjectID field. You need to use that in your condition:

If the ObjectID you parsed is the Autoreply account ID you will need to go back a reparse to get the other ID:

last(split(outputs(‘Parse2′),’_’))

Then you can get the user profile. “Get User Profile” takes it input from the results of all the Parse4.

Now that you have this information, you can send an email to the user who tried to chat the Autoreply’s Teams Account. It grabs all the information based on the lookup from the Object ID and all you must do is select the Mail field dynamic content from the lookup, add your subject and autoreply message you would like to send. You can use the WYSIWYG editor or if you know HTML code you can add the message formatted that way.

If the Object ID does not match what you parsed from GetFirstID, then you have the correct Object ID and the flow will follow the “No” branch of the condition:

last(split(outputs(‘Parse3′),’19:’))

Now that you have this information, you can send an email to the user who tried to chat the Autoreply’s Teams Account. It grabs all the information based on the lookup from the Object ID and all you must do is select the Mail field dynamic content from the lookup, add your subject and autoreply message you would like to send. You can use the WYSIWYG editor or if you know HTML code you can add the message formatted that way.

Test The Flow

Once the flow is created, save it. Then, use the flow checker to make sure there are no errors:

Lastly you can test it by clicking the test button. You have the choice to manually test or automatic. The flow is triggered by a chat event in production so just choose  “manual” and it will then sit and wait for an event that you will send immediately!

Use another Teams account to send a chat to the account where you set up the flow and the test account will get an email with the subject and the message you specified in the previous steps.

Result of Create Team’s chat autoreply.

1. You have an email address that is not directly accessed but sent to several other email addresses.
2. MS Teams chat is not monitored but needed for another reason (phone functionality).
3. You can’t set an OOO on the outlook account because it defeats the purpose of having the email address in the first place!
4. Someone sends a chat to this account.
5. Using Power Automate, a flow has been set up that replies to the message in an email that the account is not in use and probably suggests other ways to get in contact with the group.

Easy peesie, right? With a little help from Power Automate you can Create Teams Chat Autoreply!

I had written a great article on Onedrive. However, The best way to Sharing With OneDrive Online is to go to Office.com with your favorite web browser. Once you get to your portal screen, click the menu icon in the top left and choose OneDrive:

You will be brought to your “My Files” page:

You can create a folder and share it to the user(s) you want. They can view and copy the files they need from here.

Creating a Folder in OneDrive

From the top right of the My Files window, click New / Folder and then Give it a name.

Setting File Access in OneDrive

Setting Permissions

If you are collaborating with others, Use “Can Edit” permissions on the share. Use “View-Only “permissions if you would like users to only view and not edit the contents of the documents are sharing. Alternatively, you can prohibit downloading and printing of the document or folder content when in “View-Only” by blocking downloads.

Highlight the File / Folder you wish to share as read-only and click the dots (…) beside it. Chose “Share”:

You will see the share dialog box:

Next, we will set up who will have access, what kind of access (read-only or edit) and whether to block downloading or printing. Clicking on “Anyone with link can edit” will expand the sharing menu to show all options:

If you choose “Anyone with the link” as an option, the Other Settings you can pick the following:

1. Read-only or Edit
2. The date the link expires.
3. Setting a password for the link
4. Block Download – This prevents downloading or printing. It is ONLY available when access is set to READ-ONLY

For sharing with “People Within Your Organization” or “Specific People”, it is almost identical except you will not be able to set an expiry date on the link or set a password.

In Other Settings, you can do the following:

1. Read-only or Edit
2. Block Download – This prevents downloading or printing. It is ONLY available when access is set to READ-ONLY

Sharing With OneDrive Online and Sending the Link

Click “Apply” and then you are presented with the next Window that allows you to send the link. You can do these one of two ways. You can provide email addresses in the address field and then click send. The email address is searched from the directory and your contacts. Email addresses that are not in those sources must be fully typed in (i.e. [email protected]). Or you can copy the link by clicking copy and pasting it into an email that have already created in Outlook and send it that way.

Now anything you upload to that folder will be shared to the users you have specified above.

Uploading to the Folder

Navigate to the Folder you created and set permissions for and click the upload button. Choose whether you are uploading a file(s) or a folder:

Pick a file(s) and click “open” or pick a folder and click “select folder”.

It will upload to your OneDrive folder.

The Benefits of Sharing With OneDrive Online

File Sharing and Permissions

One Drive provides more granular control over who has access to what documents, and the actions that can be performed on those documents. You can set an expiry date on a shared link, manage external sharing domains and limit external sharing for specific users. Businesses can also take advantage of the improved capabilities for auditing external sharing invitations.

Data Storage

OneDrive for Business gives business users up to 1 terabyte (TB) of space each, which is far more than what most users would ever use. However, it should be noted that, by default, the data you sync from OneDrive is stored on your local drive.

Naturally, if you are syncing large amounts of data, and if you have limited space on your hard disk, you may run into problems. Fortunately, One Drive For Business provides you with options to control what data is synced to your personal OneDrive folder. This make it easy Sharing With OneDrive Online

Administrators can easily determine how much storage space their employees are using by visiting the storage metrics page. Of course, this doesn’t give them any information about the amount of storage space available on the employee’s advice.

Sensitive Data Discovery and Protection

With some licenses, businesses can search for sensitive content across SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business. OneDrive for Business recognizes 51 types of sensitive information, which include credit card numbers, passport numbers and Social Security numbers.

Within OneDrive for Business, businesses can setup basic security policies and generate reports for documents that contain sensitive information. Businesses also have more control over which devices can access their data, and the IP addresses and domains that users can connect to OneDrive from.

Sharing With OneDrive Online With Mobile

The OneDrive for Business mobile phone application offers a great user experience and is available for both Android and iOS devices. The mobile application allows users to easily share, move, delete and view documents, even when they are offline.

One interesting feature of the ODFB mobile app is the ability to make inline annotations to PDF documents, which includes drawing, highlighting, and commenting.

Version Controls

OneDrive for Business provides version controls which makes team collaboration that much easier. The benefits of versioning are that it allows administrators to review or restore previous versions of a document or file, and gives them visibility into who made what changes, and when.

Scanning With Microsoft Lens

Scanning With Microsoft Lens is a great way to get documents that are not on your phone scanned and sent to various outlets. Good examples are PDF, OneNote, PowerPoint, Word or Saved to OneDrive. You can later take the scans and share there using your normal methods on your phone (Email, Text, Teams, etc…). It definately can be used as part of the apps you deploy when you enroll devices like smartphones.

How To Scan With Microsoft Lens

This assumes you have already downloaded and installed the app from your normal app stores (Google Play, Apple. Samsung Galaxy, etc.).

Once installed do the follow:

• Tap the Lens Icon on Your Phone:

1. It will open to a scan window with the Setting Document:

• Tap the shutter button and then tap confirm on the focused document:

• Then click Done:

• Here you will have the options to save as. Once you choose your method, tap Save:

• The scan is saved to My Scans:

• Tap on the scan you just created and tap the share button :

• Your default PDF reader will open the document. In this example I am using Adobe. I do not have a cloud account to Adobe, so I tap “SEND A COPY”:

• Your default email app will open you will be able to send the document as an attachment.

As an aside, above I mentioned that there are several options you can choose to put your scan (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, OneDrive). If the device you are using is for personal reasons it really does matter what you choose. However, if it a business device, your O365 Administrator may disable some of those options even though they show as available.

I will give you an example. You have Microsoft Lens on a company enrolled device but the device is a general purpose used by many users. I explained in an earlier post how to deal with devices when MFA s not possible. You will want to disable option like OneDrive if you do not want items saved in the cloud.

This is just the start of what Microsoft Lens can do. If you want more info, go here.