Exchange Online Mail Flow (transport) rules read only can't create new rules

Ben Hall 1 Reputation point
2021-04-22T10:57:24.1+00:00

We've been using Office 365 for years and for the majority of the time, it works really well and I can find answers to any issues that come up.

However, this one has me stumped.

Yesterday, I went into the Exchange Admin Centre to edit one of the anti-phishing rules I have setup, only to find that all my mail flow rules are now read only and can't be edited. I also can't create new mail flow rules. I double checked to confirm my account is setup as global administrator, as it has been since day one. All looks good - as it should as I'm the only global admin.

It was working fine last week. (I created two new rules to prevent students from sending/receiving external email.)

So I signed out and back in - still the same.

Then I created a new account and gave it the exchange admin role.
Signed in with that account, went to the EAC and exactly the same happens - mail flow rules are read only.

So then I setup another account with the global admin role. And guess what - that doesn't work either.

I've tried it in Chrome and Edge, and on a couple of PCs, even at home last night. Still can't get it to work.

No amount of searching has produced any useful insights as to what might be happening.

What am I missing? It feels like it should be something simple, but as I'm the only admin, I don't know how it could have changed.

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Exchange Online
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  1. Ben Hall 1 Reputation point
    2021-04-22T12:41:19.79+00:00

    @Andy David - MVP Thanks for the quick response.

    I've already tried that. I've added myself and the newly created exchange admin account to the Organization Management role.
    It didn't make any difference.

    This is what I have listed:
    90363-capture.jpg

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  2. Andy David - MVP 158K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-04-22T12:47:22.117+00:00

    Ok, maybe someone messed with the ORg mgmt role.

    Verify it has that role. if not, add it and save

    90353-image.png


  3. Joyce Shen - MSFT 16,701 Reputation points
    2021-04-23T02:47:56.537+00:00

    Hi @Ben Hall

    Have you tried using powershell to manage the tranport rules for your organization?

    New-TransportRule and Set-TransportRule, please check what results return.

    And the roles needed to run the command:

    90561-qa-2021-04-23-10-47-07.png


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