Microsoft 365 SMTP AUTH connections using Basic authentication remain available through December 2026, subject to existing tenant policies. At the end of December, Microsoft will disable Basic authentication by default for existing tenants, although administrators can re-enable it temporarily. Identify password-based senders now and plan their replacement. The Microsoft SMTP...
Microsoft 365 message trace helps you troubleshoot mail delivery by showing whether Exchange Online received, delivered, delayed or blocked an email. Open Mail flow > Message trace in the Exchange admin centre, search by sender, recipient and time, then inspect the events behind the result. A Delivered status doesn’t establish...
Microsoft Entra Conditional Access blocks legitimate users when their sign-in fails a policy requirement, even if their password and multifactor authentication (MFA) are correct. Common causes include missing device-compliance information, unsupported authentication methods, unexpected network locations and overlapping policies. A valid account does not automatically satisfy every access condition. The...
Microsoft 365 audit retention is normally 180 days under Audit (Standard). Audit (Premium) provides 1-year retention for qualifying Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Entra records, but the entitlement depends on the user generating the activity. An E5 subscription somewhere in the tenant does not give every account the same retention....
In Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure AD, emergency-access accounts (also called break-glass accounts) reduce administrator lockout risk. Their authentication and recovery arrangements must remain independent of normal administrator access. Create at least 2 cloud-only accounts with permanent Global Administrator permissions and phishing-resistant MFA. Conditional Access exclusions do not remove Microsoft’s...
Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure AD, rejects fresh token requests that use an expired credential. The app registration remains in place, but integrations using that credential can’t authenticate until a replacement is configured. Creating a new secret alone doesn’t restore service: the application, script or connector must receive its new...
Attackers hide Microsoft 365 forwarding rules with misleading names, by targeting selected messages, or by creating rules that don’t appear in the standard rules list. After compromising an account, they can copy correspondence externally while moving or deleting messages that might expose the activity. A password reset doesn’t remove these...
Staff can access Microsoft 365 safely on personal phones when access is limited to protected apps, strong authentication and enforceable device standards. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) alone doesn’t control where attachments are saved, whether a phone receives updates or what happens to work data after someone leaves. A practical BYOD policy...
To restore deleted SharePoint file content without overwriting newer edits, first preserve any newer copies. Use a single-item restore where possible, rather than rolling back an entire document library and reversing unrelated work. The recovered file contains the content and retained versions available when it was deleted, not changes subsequently...
Microsoft 365 sign-in logs show unfamiliar locations because Microsoft normally estimates location from the connection’s public IP address, not the user’s physical position. VPNs, mobile networks and security proxies can explain unexpected countries or cities, but compromised accounts can produce similar records. Treat location as supporting evidence, rather than proof...
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