AzureAD set targetAddress

Question

Is it possible to set the targetAddress property within AzureAD? If so, how is this done?

Answer 1

Hi @Mark Barton

Thank you for asking this question on the **Microsoft Q&A Platform. **

Unfortunately, you only can edit the attribute targetAddress from Exchange Online or from you On-premises AD (if you have a Hybrid Environment)

Hope this helps!

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Answer 2

You seem to have provided an explanation on how to change a primary email address. This isn't what I'm looking for. I would like the primary address to stay as is and change the targetAddress in order to forward all email externally.

Regards
Mark

Answer 3

Hello @Mark Barton

I assume that AD attribute TargetAddress is not synchronized to Azure AD as there is actually no reason for this to sync.

It is used for the following:

• You have migrated a user from On-Prem to Office 365 or you have created a remote mailbox user on-premises that has a mailbox in Office 365.
• The user is synced to Office 365 and the mailbox lives in Exchange Online. Now, since Exchange is self aware, it will need an object locally to tell it where the user is to be found.
• The Target Address says, for this remote user, send mail to this address, the mail then goes through the normal connector mailflow in your hybrid setup and lands in Office 365 where the mail is delivered as normal since it has been sent redirected to the address the user has in Office 365.
• Usually for Target Address you would use the mail.onmicrosoft.com domain alias for the user, your on-prem connector points this domain to Office 365.
• As soon as the mail lands in Office 365 the mail alias (proxyaddress) will tell Exchange Online where the mailbox is. This is why Office 365 doesn't need to know the Target Address attribute, all is handled by normal mailflow, it is only for On-Prem to know what to do since the mailbox is not in the local Exchange Organisation.
• Above detail is also available on following post: When the AD attribute TargetAddress is synchronised to Office 365, where does it "go"?

If your end goal is just to forward emails externally to specific user/mailbox you can use mail forwarding settings with Office 365 Admin Center. Detailed steps mentioned here- Configure email forwarding in Microsoft 365

I hope this helps.

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Answer 4

Email forwarding as described relies on a user account with an associated mailbox and hence a licence. I am looking for a way to achieve this without the mailbox.

I've been able to achieve close to what I am looking for within the Exchange Online Admin Console by creating a new mail contact which includes an external email address forward field. However there doesn't seem to be any option available in order to edit these fields once the contact has been created... Although I guess I can delete and recreate the mail contact with the updated forwarding email address.

Regards
Mark

Answer 5

Apologies, this should have read MailUser and not MailContact for mail to be successfully forwarded from internal@domain1.com to external@domain2.com.