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Automatic Replies for a User in Exchange 2010/2013

So the user goes on a unplanned long leave without setting automatic replies!

Upon demand, it then becomes the duty of an administrator to set the automatic reply in such scenario. Earlier the only option was to grant the user mailbox full permission or to change the password of the user & set the automatic reply for that user. In Exchange 2010 you can configure automatic reply for such users without using any of the option above. There are two ways to configure auto-reply for user, using the Exchange Management Console & Exchange Management Shell. Let’s see how we can enable them.

How do we enable auto -reply using the ‘Exchange Control Panel’ (ECP):

=> Login to the Exchange Control Panel

=> Mail => Options => select Another User.

=> Select the user for whom you want to configure Automatic Reply.

=> Once a user is selected a new IE page opens & you can see a notification saying ” Admin is working on behalf of Usera@domain.com) => click “Tell people you’re on vacation”

=> Select “Send AutomaticReplies” => Select the date & enter the OOF message => Click Save.

=> Select appropriate option if you want the OOF to be sent to users outside the organization => “select automatic reply messages to senders outside my organization” select => “Send replies to all external senders”=> enter the OOF message & save.

=> send a test mail to the user to check if the OOF is working.

How do we enable auto-reply using the Exchange Management Shell (EMS):

=>Open Exchange Management Shell & run the following command (Know with the user will return so that we can set the date as well):

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration usera@domain.com –AutoReplyState Scheduled –StartTime “10/3/2015″ –EndTime 10/4/2015” –ExternalMessage “External OOF message content” –InternalMessage “Internal OOF message content”.

=> Send a test mail to the user to check if the OOF is working.

=> To check auto reply setting for a mailbox run the following command:

Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration username

=> To disable the auto-reply configured for the mailbox, run the following command:

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration usera@domain.com –AutoReplyState Disabled –ExternalMessage $null –InternalMessage $null

 

Ratish Nair

Microsoft MVP | Exchange Server

Team @MSExchangeGuru

7 Responses to “Automatic Replies for a User in Exchange 2010/2013”

  1. Markus Says:

    Hi Ratish,

    Don’t you mean ‘Exchange Control Panel’ (ECP) instead of ‘EMC’ (Exchange Management Console) – at least in Exchange 2010?

    Thanks for posting these tips…

  2. Prabhat Nigam Says:

    You got it. corrected now.

  3. Chaz Says:

    Great job. Worked like a charm on a domain/exchange user.

  4. Marco Says:

    Hello,
    With Exchange 2013 with 2 domains, is it possible to set automatic reply for just one domain?

  5. Prabhat Nigam Says:

    Try the transport rule for whole domain.

  6. Dev Says:

    Hello Sir

    Can you tell whats can be the script if we want auto reply for any incoming mail to disabled users to be replied with “auto reply stating the date and time of disabling of that user” for every user automatically.

  7. Prabhat Nigam Says:

    Why would you like to expose user’s leaving date to external users?

    You can try creating a transport rule to reply with last modify date of the user object matching mail attribute.

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