Automatic Replies For Just Outside My Organization?

Question

Hello all, I will be going on vacation soon and my company uses Microsoft & Outlook for all communication/work. I am trying to set my out of office/automatic replies so that any outside client that emails me during the week I am gone will get an automatic reply. However, I see that there is an option for both contacts and in my organization. These clients are not necessarily listed in my contacts, and I do not need my coworkers inside my organization to receive an automatic reply.

How can I ensure that my automatic reply will just go to clients outside the organization (or clients within my contacts) and not any of my coworkers? I use Outlook for Mac, for reference.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello LaurenC04,
It has been a while and I am writing to see how things are going with this issue. Have you had a chance to check the replies provided? Any update would be appreciated. 

Best Regards,  
Viego An  - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

Answer 2

Hello.

I keep trying to set automatic replies ONLY for emails OUTSIDE of my organization, but it doesn't work. Peopel in my organization keep getting a blank autoreply.

I properly leave the text for autoreplies to my organization blank, and fill only the section for outside and my organization keeps gettin auto-replies with nothing on it.

What can I do?

Roberto

Answer 3

Dear LaurenC04,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Support Community. We are happy to assist you.

There are two ways to set up automatic replies in Microsoft 365 to ensure only external senders receive your out-of-office message:

Option 1: Outlook Settings (Quick Setup)
You can configure automatic replies directly in Outlook (desktop or web):

Open Outlook for Mac.
Go to the Tools menu and select Automatic Replies.

In the Automatic Replies window:
Check “Send automatic replies for account…”.

Set your start and end time for the replies.
Under the “Outside My Organization” tab:
Check “Send replies outside my organization”.
Choose “Anyone outside my organization” (since your clients may not be in your contacts).

Enter your message for external clients here.

Note: Even if you leave the internal message blank, some internal users may still receive a default or empty reply. This behavior is built into Outlook and can’t be fully disabled through the app alone.

Option 2: Mail Flow Rule (Recommended for Precision)
If you want full control, your IT admin can create a mail flow rule in the Exchange Admin Center:

The rule can be set to trigger only for external senders
It sends a custom auto-reply without affecting internal users
This method avoids the internal reply issue entirely.

Let me know if you’d like help drafting the message for the rule or if you’d prefer to proceed with the Outlook method.

If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to ask. 
Best regards,  
Viego An - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.