Delete mails that have been received before the date given by the user using powershell

Question

Hello,
I am unable to delete mails that have been received before the date given by the user.
The code I used is,
$date = Read-Host "Enter the date (dd/mm/yyyy)"
Search-Mailbox -Identity "abc@consto.onmicrosoft.com" -SearchQuery { received<=$date} -DeleteContent -Force
Its showing error as,
The KQL parser threw an exception.

• CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [], ParserException
• FullyQualifiedErrorId : [Server=DM4PR12MB5360,RequestId=297f7526-fe64-43ec-916b-cbd2e3c19cb1,TimeStamp=21-02-2022 08:29:53] [FailureCategory=Cmdlet-ParserException] 5E9AB73F
• PSComputerName : outlook.office365.com

But when I directly use the date without storing it in variable like below it works.
Search-Mailbox -Identity "abc@consto.onmicrosoft.com" -SearchQuery { received<=17-02-2022} -DeleteContent -Force

Can anyone tell why its working when I am directly using the date in cmdlet and not working when stored in variable and used.

Thank you!

Answer 1

@Svb

Are you using Exchange online? I tested it in my lab, there doesn't exist issue with it:

Search:

Delete:

I connect to Exchange online in the way of Basic auth.

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Answer 2

From this web page: keyword-query-language-kql-syntax-reference

Date or time values for properties
KQL provides the datetime data type for date and time.The following ISO 8601-compatible datetime formats are supported in queries:

YYYY-MM-DD

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssfrZ

Maybe there's some behind-the-scenes management of the string based on your date/time locale setting.

Try this and see if it makes a difference:

[datetime]$date = Read-Host "Enter the date (dd/mm/yyyy)"