2.2.1.1 Autodiscover

The Autodiscover command facilitates the discovery of core account configuration information by using the user's Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) address as the primary input. For information about the Autodiscover service, see [MSFT-AUTODISCOVER]. For more details about the Autodiscover HTTP Service, see [MS-OXDISCO].

The Autodiscover command request and response messages are sent in XML format, not WBXML format.

When sending an Autodiscover command request, the Content-Type header value MUST be set to text/xml.<2> For more details about the Content-Type header, see [MS-ASHTTP] section 2.2.1.1.2.3.

The client SHOULD use the Autodiscover command as an initial response to common HTTP errors. Common HTTP errors are specified in [MS-ASHTTP] section 2.2.2.1.1. Autodiscover has the ability to retrieve an updated URL when a mailbox has been moved, a user is trying to connect to a server that cannot access the user's mailbox, or when there is a more efficient server to use to reach the user's mailbox.

After a successful Autodiscover command response, the client sends an HTTP Options command to the server identified in the Autodiscover command response. The HTTP Options command returns the newly supported protocol versions and commands if they changed due to the Autodiscover command.

The http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/mobilesync/requestschema/2006 namespace is the primary namespace for the Autodiscover command and this section of the specification. Elements referenced in this section that are not defined in the http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/autodiscover/mobilesync/requestschema/2006 namespace use the namespace prefixes defined in section 2.2.4.

The following table lists the elements that are used in Autodiscover command requests and responses.

Element name

Scope

Reference

Autodiscover

Request and Response

section 2.2.3.15

Request

Request

section 2.2.3.150.1

EMailAddress

Request and Response

section 2.2.3.56

AcceptableResponseSchema

Request

section 2.2.3.1

Response

Response

section 2.2.3.153.1

Culture

Response

section 2.2.3.38

User

Response

section 2.2.3.189

DisplayName

Response

section 2.2.3.49.1

Action

Response

section 2.2.3.6

Redirect

Response

section 2.2.3.147

Settings

Response

section 2.2.3.168.1

Server

Response

section 2.2.3.164

Type

Response

section 2.2.3.186.1

Url

Response

section 2.2.3.188

Name

Response

section 2.2.3.120.1

ServerData

Response

section 2.2.3.165

Error

Response

section 2.2.3.63

Status

Response

section 2.2.3.177.1

Message

Response

section 2.2.3.108

DebugData

Response

section 2.2.3.40

ErrorCode

Response

section 2.2.3.64

The XML schema for the Autodiscover command request is described in section 6.3. The XML schema for the Autodiscover command response is described in section 6.4.

Protocol Versions

The following table specifies the protocol versions that support this command. The client indicates the protocol version being used by setting either the MS-ASProtocolVersion header, as specified in [MS-ASHTTP] section 2.2.1.1.2.6, or the Protocol version field, as specified in [MS-ASHTTP] section 2.2.1.1.1.1, in the request.

Protocol version

Command support

2.5

12.0

Yes

12.1

Yes

14.0

Yes

14.1

Yes

16.0

Yes

16.1

Yes