Encryption is not working but i have an active license

Question

Hello

Please i need your help on this issue.

Encryption is not working but i have an active license.

we pay for 1 license of encryption and i am not allowed to choose the encryption though it is attached to my email address

Answer 1

Hi @James James ,

To further confirm, do you see any error messages when you try to encrypt emails, or the option is not available? Does encryption work for other users in your organization?  

As far as I know, Microsoft 365 Message Encryption requires specific licenses like E3, E5, you may need to check if your account has the right license assigned, such as Microsoft 365 E3/E5. Also, admins might to enable encryption in the admin center. Here are the steps you can try to troubleshoot:

1.Verify License Assignment

• Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
• Navigate to Users > Active Users and select your account.
• Under Licenses and Apps, confirm that a license supporting encryption (e.g., Microsoft 365 E3/E5, Office 365 E3/E5 with Azure Information Protection Plan 1, or Microsoft 365 Business Premium) is assigned to your account.
• If the license is missing, contact your admin to assign it.

 2.Check User Permissions

• Encryption requires specific permissions, which your admin must enable:
• Ask your admin to verify that Azure Rights Management (RMS) is enabled for your organization:
• In the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, go to Settings > Org Settings > Security & Privacy > Azure Information Protection.
• Ensure Azure RMS is activated.
• If your organization uses Sensitivity Labels, your admin must:
• Publish a label with encryption enabled.
• Assign the label to your account.

3.Test Encryption in Outlook

• Open Outlook and compose a new email.
• Look for the Encrypt button under the Options tab.
• If missing, update Outlook to the latest version.
• Restart Outlook or repair Office via Control Panel > Programs > Microsoft 365 > Change > Quick Repair.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.