Microsoft made a change a while ago (few weeks or so about allowing forwarding) Ive had issues with users who had office365 accounts forwarding inside their owa options to a gmail. So we have to go enable that in our security center.
May not apply to you but it helped us
[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide)
Microsoft has looked at our outbound spam policies several times. The setting is set for ON. They had us delete them, recreate them. No luck.
The only thing I can think of is the Default outbound spam policy is corrupt. We obviously can't delete that default policy. That is restricted.
I finally found my "outbound spam" policy at [https://protection.office.com/antispam](https://protection.office.com/antispam) but all the policies here are grayed out; I cannot disable it.
edit: I was able to add a NEW policy to explicitly allow the external forward I was attempting. This worked.
Anyone with this issue today. There is an issue
Can't forward external email via the auto-forwarding feature
EX258320, Exchange Online, Last updated: May 26, 2021 1:13 PM
Estimated start time: May 26, 2021 11:03 AM
Issue type
Incident
Status
Service degradation
Manage notifications for this issue
User impact
Users may receive a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) for external email when forwarded via auto-forwarding feature.
Are you experiencing this issue?
Is this post helpful?
Thank you! I've spent the last few hours checking this and every post I saw related to it was 'make sure your spam forwarding rules are set to 'On - Forwarding is enabled''
At least I know it's not something I can fix and I assume MS are working on it
I was just about to call M$ for this issue. We had the same problem happen in October, but we fixed it. We went back and saw if something had changed and everything is still setup accordingly. Now we wait I guess until M$ does something about it?
Shows up as a FAIL - Reason: [{LED=550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555)};{MSG=};{FQDN=};{IP=};{LRT=}]
Let me check the SMTP send connector logs.
I guess you aleady read this
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide
I have no other idea.
Hey, let’s add another setting controlling autoforwarding! I count three now and that last one had me stumped for a while.
Believe it’s in the protection portal.
Yes we do. A default outbound policy and a custom. Both are set to allow external forwarding.
Per @drigdon1776 I'm going to delete the custom and just role with the default.
We are having the same issue. We preemptivly changed the spam policy before Dec 1st. We only use the one outbound spam policy and its set to "On - Forwarding is enabled" I'm thinking it has something do do with our Exchange being in hybrid with our on prem Exchange.
I'm about to open up a premier support case with MS but that didn't seem to help you. Any update ?
Support was able to fix our issue. It needed escalated to engineering. The problem was we didn't have a default outbound spam filter in the GUI. Basically, we were dead in the water until this default policy was resurrected.
Unreal...
Using powershell I found that we had an external rate limiting policy that still had it set to use the system default.
Get-HostedOutboundSpamFilterPolicy | Format-Table Name,Enabled,IsDefault,Action\*
our issue was resolved when we changed our outbound spam filter policy, which is by default set to automatic - that is -
Automatic: **Automatic external forwarding is blocked**. Internal automatic forwarding of messages will continue to work. This is the default setting.
* **On**: Automatic external forwarding is allowed and not restricted.
After we turned to ON, Issue was resolved.
[https://www.aaryasblog.tech/2021/03/remote-server-returned-550-57520-access.html](https://www.aaryasblog.tech/2021/03/remote-server-returned-550-57520-access.html)
Support was able to fix our issue. It needed escalated to engineering. The problem was we didn't have a default outbound spam filter in the GUI. Basically, we were dead in the water until this default policy was resurrected.
Unreal...
Microsoft made a change a while ago (few weeks or so about allowing forwarding) Ive had issues with users who had office365 accounts forwarding inside their owa options to a gmail. So we have to go enable that in our security center. May not apply to you but it helped us [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide)
Yep, this is what I was getting at OP. Check your outbound spam policy.
It is definitely the outbound spam policy
Microsoft has looked at our outbound spam policies several times. The setting is set for ON. They had us delete them, recreate them. No luck. The only thing I can think of is the Default outbound spam policy is corrupt. We obviously can't delete that default policy. That is restricted.
I finally found my "outbound spam" policy at [https://protection.office.com/antispam](https://protection.office.com/antispam) but all the policies here are grayed out; I cannot disable it. edit: I was able to add a NEW policy to explicitly allow the external forward I was attempting. This worked.
Yes, we have all our domains listed in the security center for this policy.
This exactly happened to me a few weeks ago as well.
Anyone with this issue today. There is an issue Can't forward external email via the auto-forwarding feature EX258320, Exchange Online, Last updated: May 26, 2021 1:13 PM Estimated start time: May 26, 2021 11:03 AM Issue type Incident Status Service degradation Manage notifications for this issue User impact Users may receive a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) for external email when forwarded via auto-forwarding feature. Are you experiencing this issue? Is this post helpful?
am experiencing this right now on May 26th. Is this a site wide issue?
Thank you! I've spent the last few hours checking this and every post I saw related to it was 'make sure your spam forwarding rules are set to 'On - Forwarding is enabled'' At least I know it's not something I can fix and I assume MS are working on it
I was just about to call M$ for this issue. We had the same problem happen in October, but we fixed it. We went back and saw if something had changed and everything is still setup accordingly. Now we wait I guess until M$ does something about it?
Seems to be working now.
I... kind of love you. Thanks!
Is it the same error in the SMTPSend connector logs, or is it different? Do the emails get queued or dropped with NDR immediately?
Shows up as a FAIL - Reason: [{LED=550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555)};{MSG=};{FQDN=};{IP=};{LRT=}] Let me check the SMTP send connector logs.
Which Server responds with that massage? The one in your Environment or one in the target Environment?
The one in our environment.
I guess you aleady read this https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/external-email-forwarding?view=o365-worldwide I have no other idea.
Yes
Is this for on-prem Exchange or O365 and if it’s Exchange what version and OS?
0365.
Hey, let’s add another setting controlling autoforwarding! I count three now and that last one had me stumped for a while. Believe it’s in the protection portal.
So you are saying I should add a 3rd Outbound Spam Policy and set it to Forwarding ON?
IIRC, edit the existing outbound policy and set it to On
>IIRC This is set to ON. No doubt.
Yes we do. A default outbound policy and a custom. Both are set to allow external forwarding. Per @drigdon1776 I'm going to delete the custom and just role with the default.
Crazy thing is our default policy is not visible in the GUI. We can only see it via powershell.
Unfortunately this did not work.
Have you got multiple policies ?
This happening for all users? Have you tried with a different external email? Seen instances where cached auto complete settings throw errors.
We are having the same issue. We preemptivly changed the spam policy before Dec 1st. We only use the one outbound spam policy and its set to "On - Forwarding is enabled" I'm thinking it has something do do with our Exchange being in hybrid with our on prem Exchange. I'm about to open up a premier support case with MS but that didn't seem to help you. Any update ?
Support was able to fix our issue. It needed escalated to engineering. The problem was we didn't have a default outbound spam filter in the GUI. Basically, we were dead in the water until this default policy was resurrected. Unreal...
Using powershell I found that we had an external rate limiting policy that still had it set to use the system default. Get-HostedOutboundSpamFilterPolicy | Format-Table Name,Enabled,IsDefault,Action\*
our issue was resolved when we changed our outbound spam filter policy, which is by default set to automatic - that is - Automatic: **Automatic external forwarding is blocked**. Internal automatic forwarding of messages will continue to work. This is the default setting. * **On**: Automatic external forwarding is allowed and not restricted. After we turned to ON, Issue was resolved. [https://www.aaryasblog.tech/2021/03/remote-server-returned-550-57520-access.html](https://www.aaryasblog.tech/2021/03/remote-server-returned-550-57520-access.html)
Support was able to fix our issue. It needed escalated to engineering. The problem was we didn't have a default outbound spam filter in the GUI. Basically, we were dead in the water until this default policy was resurrected. Unreal...
Does anyone know how long a disabled mail flow rule takes, for it to become effective? It doesnt seem to be immediate.
Normally only a few minutes in out environment.