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Multi-Geo Capabilities in Exchange Online

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In a multi-geo environment, you can select the location of Exchange Online mailbox content (data at rest) on a per-user basis.

You can place mailboxes in satellite geo locations by:

  • Creating a new Exchange Online mailbox directly in a satellite geo location.
  • Moving an existing Exchange Online mailbox to a satellite geo location by changing the user's preferred data location.
  • Onboarding a mailbox from an on-premises Exchange organization directly into a satellite geo location.

Note

This feature doesn't guarantee email routing through a dedicated geo-specific region (data in transit).

Mailbox placement and moves

After Microsoft completes the prerequisite multi-geo configuration steps, Exchange Online will honor the PreferredDataLocation attribute on user objects in Microsoft Entra ID.

Exchange Online synchronizes the PreferredDataLocation property from Microsoft Entra ID into the MailboxRegion property in the Exchange Online directory service. The value of MailboxRegion determines the geo location where user mailboxes and any associated archive mailboxes are placed. It isn't possible to configure a user's primary mailbox and archive mailboxes to reside in different geo locations. Only one geo location per user object is allowed.

  • When PreferredDataLocation is configured on a user with an existing mailbox, the mailbox is put into a relocation queue and automatically moved to the specified geo location.
  • When PreferredDataLocation is configured on a user without an existing mailbox, the mailbox is provisioned into the specified geo location when you provision the mailbox.
  • When PreferredDataLocation isn't specified on a user, the mailbox is provisioned in the central geo location when you provision the mailbox.
  • If the PreferredDataLocation code is incorrect (for example, a typo of NAN instead of NAM), the mailbox is provisioned in the central geo location.

Note

Multi-geo capabilities and Microsoft Teams regionally hosted meetings both use the PreferredDataLocation property on user objects to locate services. If you configure PreferredDataLocation values on user objects for regionally hosted meetings, the mailbox for those users will be automatically moved to the specified geo location after multi-geo is enabled on the Microsoft 365 tenant.

Feature limitations for multi-geo in Exchange Online

  • Outlook for Mac users may experience a temporary loss of access to their Online Archive folder while you move their mailbox to a new geo location. This condition occurs when the user's the primary and archive mailboxes are in different geo locations, because cross-geo mailbox moves may complete at different times.

  • Users can't share mailbox folders across geo locations in Outlook on the web (formerly known as Outlook Web App or OWA). For example, a user in the European Union can't use Outlook on the web to open a shared folder in a mailbox that's located in the United States. However, Outlook on the Web users can open other mailboxes in different geo locations by using a separate browser window as described in Open another person's mailbox in a separate browser window in Outlook Web App.

    Note: Cross-geo mailbox folder sharing is supported in Outlook on Windows.

  • Public folders are supported in multi-geo organizations. However, the public folders must remain in the central geo location. You can't move public folders to satellite geo locations.

  • In a multi-geo environment, cross-geo mailbox auditing isn't supported. For example, if a user is assigned permissions to access a shared mailbox in a different geo location, mailbox actions performed by that user aren't logged in the mailbox audit log of the shared mailbox. Exchange admin audit events are available for all locations via Microsoft Purview and the Search-UnifiedAuditLog cmdlet. For more information, see Manage mailbox auditing.