Automatically update email addresses based on email address policy

In a previous article, you learned how to list users not inheriting email address policy. Now that you have the information, you like to enable that setting. There are a couple of ways to do that. By default, this setting is checked. In this article, you will learn how to enable automatically update email addresses based on the email address policy.

Enable automatically update email addresses based on email address policy

Before you enable the setting in Exchange Admin Center for the user, it’s good to know which options there are. For example, you can allow it for:

• A specific mailbox
• Mailboxes in an Organizational Unit
• Mailboxes in a text file
• Mailboxes in a CSV file
• All mailboxes (user mailboxes, resource mailboxes, and shared mailboxes)

Enable setting for a specific mailbox

Before you start, run Exchange Management Shell as administrator.

Check if EmailAddressPolicyEnabled is showing as True or False. The policy option is not enabled for the user mailbox because it’s showing as False. Enable the option with the second cmdlet.

[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -Identity "Amanda.Morgan@exoip.com" | ft Name, EmailAddressPolicyEnabled

Name            EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----            -------------------------
Jonathan Fisher                     False


[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -Identity "Amanda.Morgan@exoip.com" | Set-Mailbox -EmailAddressPolicyEnabled $True

Enable setting for mailboxes in an Organizational Unit

Do you need to find the Organizational Unit (OU) in Active Directory? Read how to get Organizational Units with PowerShell. Some mailboxes are showing as False and other mailboxes showing as True.

[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit "exoip.local/Company/Users/IT" | ft Name, EmailAddressPolicyEnabled

Name           EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----           -------------------------
Jake Cornish                       False
Julian Walsh                        True
James Paterson                     False
Piers Rees                         False
Jeff Allan                          True

List only the mailboxes that don’t have the setting enabled. Enable the setting with the second cmdlet.

[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit "exoip.local/Company/Users/IT" | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | ft Name, EmailAddressPolicyEnabled

Name           EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----           -------------------------
Jake Cornish                       False
James Paterson                     False
Piers Rees                         False


[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -OrganizationalUnit "exoip.local/Company/Users/IT" | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | Set-Mailbox -EmailAddressPolicyEnabled $True

Enable setting for mailboxes in a text file

Create a text file with the name users.txt in C:\temp. Put the names of the mailboxes or the email addresses in the text file. Read more on how to export a list of mailboxes to text file.

With the Get-Content cmdlet, you can read the information that’s in the text file. The second cmdlet will enable the setting for the mailboxes in the text file.

[PS] C:\>Get-Content C:\temp\users.txt | Get-Mailbox | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | ft Name, EmailAddressPolicyEnabled

Name          EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----          -------------------------
Amanda Morgan                     False
Benetiz Anees                     False


[PS] C:\>Get-Content C:\temp\users.txt | Get-Mailbox | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | Set-Mailbox -EmailAddressPolicyEnabled $True

Enable setting for mailboxes in a CSV file

If you followed the article, you already have the CSV file exported. Place the NotInherting.csv file in C:\temp.

The first cmdlet will read the CSV file in PowerShell. With the second cmdlet, you can verify which mailboxes don’t have the setting enabled. As of last, enable the setting for the mailboxes in the CSV file.

Read more: Export a list of mailboxes to CSV in Exchange »

[PS] C:\>Import-CSV C:\temp\NotInheriting.csv

Name           PrimarySmtpAddress       SamAccountName EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----           ------------------       -------------- -------------------------
Larson Tevin   Larson.Tevin@exoip.com   Larson.Tevin   False
Virgina Duncan Virgina.Duncan@exoip.com virgina.duncan False
Madeleine Ross Madeleine.Ross@exoip.com madeleine.ross False


[PS] C:\>Import-CSV C:\temp\NotInheriting.csv | foreach {Get-Mailbox -Identity $_.Name | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False}} | ft Name, EmailAddressPolicyEnabled

Name           EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----           -------------------------
Larson Tevin                       False
Virgina Duncan                     False
Madeleine Ross                     False


[PS] C:\>Import-CSV C:\temp\NotInheriting.csv | foreach {Get-Mailbox -Identity $_.Name | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | Set-Mailbox -EmailAddressPolicyEnabled $True}

Enable setting for all mailboxes

Get all the mailboxes in the Exchange organization. After that, run the second cmdlet to enable the setting for all the user mailboxes, resource mailboxes, and shared mailboxes.

[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | ft Name, EmailaddressPolicyEnabled

Name           EmailAddressPolicyEnabled
----           -------------------------
Sarah Lee                          False
Kyle Peake                         False
Madeleine Ross                     False
Shared Sales                       False
Room Tokyo                         False


[PS] C:\>Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Where-Object {$_.EmailAddressPolicyEnabled -eq $False} | Set-Mailbox -EmailAddressPolicyEnabled $True

There are a lot of options to enable automatically update email addresses based on the email address policy. Which one did you use?

Keep on reading: List all SMTP addresses with PowerShell »

Conclusion

In this article, you learned how to enable automatically update email addresses based on the email address policy. Use PowerShell instead of the Exchange Admin Center. With PowerShell, there are enough possibilities to enable this setting, and you can apply it in bulk. Choose the option you want and apply it.

Did you enjoy this article? You may also like Create bulk mailboxes in Exchange 2016 with PowerShell. Don’t forget to follow us and share this article.