New Message Trace Experience Coming to Exchange Online

Microsoft will begin rolling out the new Message Trace experience for Exchange Online later this month, with full availability expected by July. The update brings improvements IT admins will appreciate, including better filtering, timezone-aware timestamps, and more detailed delivery statuses.

In Exchange Online, Message Trace is a tool that allows administrators to track the journey of email messages through their organization’s email system. It shows whether a message was received, delivered, delayed, or blocked, and provides details about the actions taken on it. This feature is particularly useful for troubleshooting mail flow issues, confirming message delivery, and understanding how Exchange Online handles specific emails.

Key features of the new Message Trace experience

Microsoft rolled out the new Message Trace experience in public preview in December 2024. It brings several enhancements aimed at improving usability, performance, and functionality for administrators. This release brings a modernized UI that is enabled by default and includes a more intuitive layout along with performance improvements.

The new Message Trace experience lets organizations query up to 90 days of email history, though each query is limited to a 10-day range. Microsoft has added improved filtering options to help admins quickly find specific messages. For example, messages can now be filtered by subject using conditions like “starts with,” “ends with,” or “contains,” even if special characters are included. The delivery status filter has also been enhanced to show more detailed results, such as “Quarantined,” “Filtered as spam,” and “Getting status.”

In the results view, IT admins can choose which columns to display, and their column width preferences are saved per account. There is also a wider flyout panel that makes it easier to read message details. The Message Trace feature now respects the time zone set in the admin’s Exchange account in order to ensure that timestamps align with local settings.

Additionally, Microsoft has introduced new cmdlets (Get-MessageTraceV2 and Get-MessageTraceDetailV2) to replace the older Get-MessageTrace and Get-MessageTraceDetail cmdlets in Exchange Online. They offer improved performance and more detailed output.

How to access the new Message Trace experience in Exchange Online

To get started with the new Message Trace feature, IT admins should log into the Exchange admin center and navigate to Mail flow > Message Trace. Microsoft also encourages admins to share their feedback via Exchange Admin Center> Give Feedback.

“We will continue to maintain the old Message Trace UX in Exchange admin center and cmdlets (Get-MessageTrace and Get-MessageTraceDetail) alongside the new Message Trace interface and cmdlets (Get-MessageTraceV2 and Get-MessageTraceDetailV2) for several months to ease the transition,” the Exchange team explained.

Microsoft will deprecate the old Message Trace interface, cmdlets, and the Reporting Webservice on September 1. IT administrators are advised to update their automation scripts to use the new PowerShell cmdlets (Get-MessageTraceV2 and Get-MessageTraceDetailV2) before that date to prevent any workflow disruptions.

Last month, Microsoft released a new Reject Direct Send feature in public preview for Exchange Online customers. This capability is designed to help administrators strengthen protection against unauthorized email traffic in enterprise environments.