Focused Inbox for On-prem Exchange 2019

Question

Hello All,
I'm trying to understand how the focused inbox functionality works for on-prem Exchange (or: does it work at all?)

I found this article, which describes necessary server side configuration for O365. When I execute Get-OrganizationConfig on my Exchange on-prem deployment I can see the same two focused inbox parameters (which are not set). However, some of the other PS commands (Get/Set-FocusedInbox) don't seem to exist.

Currently, focused inbox is not available in OWA or with Outlook, which would normally make sense, as it appears it is not turned on server-side.
But what I don't understand is that on my phone Outlook for Android will happily display and sort using a focused inbox - which would indicate client-side functionality.

Long story short, can I / how do I turn on focused inbox for on-prem Exchange 2019?

Thx in advance !
M.

Answer 1

Hi @Marcus Bauer ,

The Focused Inbox is an 365 thing, not avail for server-side configuration on-prem.
Honestly, the way it works and the mailbox intelligence it leverages means it prob will never be ported to on-prem mailboxes in the same way it is in 365.
Despite what this article implies:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/focused-inbox-for-outlook-f445ad7f-02f4-4294-a82e-71d8964e3978#:~:text=Focused%20Inbox%20separates%20your%20inbox,%2C%20and%20Outlook.com%20accounts.

In Outlook for Windows, Focused Inbox is available only for Microsoft 365, Exchange, and Outlook.com accounts.

So the reason you can leverage this for Outlook mobile is because the caching of your mailbox for the Outlook App is actually done in Microsoft 365, so that is where the focused inbox logic is handled.

Hope that make sense!

Answer 2

Interesting its available on Outlook for Android also for on-premise Exchange 2013.. so its seems to be somehow client related.

In some threads people mentioned it also works for Exchange 2016 on-premise and newer with desktop Outlook...

Answer 3

Disappointing - but thx.