As we build solutions in Office 365, we often need the concept of service accounts, but there's no mechanism for this - other than setting up a fake user account. It's quite common to need an identity that isn't tied to a specific person, not unlike what we typically do on premises.

The idea would be that these service accounts could have the restriction that they wouldn't have a login, so they would have no mailbox, no OneDrive etc., but could be secured like any other AD principal.

Here are some example uses for this type of account:
* As the identity under which a Flow or PowerApps would run. This would mean that the service account could have the least required permissions to create the necessary connectors within Office 365, but the identity would make more sense for actions like sending emails.
* In PowerApps, using a service account to do something or reach into content sources in a certain way that cannot depend on the current user's credentials. For example, reaching into HR's site for a particular list of information curated specifically for the request or user which would be displayed on a form.

Additionally, these service accounts should not incur licensing charges, since they wouldn't be used by any actual person. Currently, we end up creating fake users (maybe Firstname: HR, Lastname: Administrator) and paying the monthly licensing charge for them.

Finally, having these service accounts would greatly improve the solutions outside consultants can provide in Office 365. It rarely makes sense to see an email coming from a consultant or a list item created by a consultant who used to work in the tenant or to have that consultant's identity tied to any solution. In Flow, we can make individual Flows into Team Flows, but the consultant identity is still stuck in the owners list. Some sort of service account would decouple the person creating the solution and the identity running it.

I log in. I am asked for a mobile number so I can verify account changes and reset my password. I find my mobile number listed on my contact card. I remove my mobile number. I log in. I am asked for a mobile number so I can verify account changes and reset my password. I find my mobile number listed on my contact card. I remove my mobile number. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
I want the semi-two-factor auth this provides, but the last thing I need is to have my entire company contacting me for support after hours or for vendors or clients, with access to our address book, contacting my cell... EVER.
I have seen numerous others on various forums asking for the same thing.

Currently, the default "Save" syncs the file to Sharepoint / OneDrive, then syncs from the cloud back to the local drive. This is a bad sequence, as, if there is a problem uploading and the file cannot be synced, the file is then completely lost. This feature can be manually overridden by going to "File," "Save As," and selecting "This PC," but must be done every time. Besides risking loss of data, by syncing to Sharepoint/OneDrive first, it locks up the file from being able to be used. If the file were simply saved locally first (which is fast), the document could be released for editing while the local file syncs to the cloud, which is exactly how Dropbox works.

Please consider this as part of the "Options" for the sequence for saving files, i.e., "Save to local drive first, then sync to cloud," or "Save to cloud first, then sync to local drive."

Thanks for listening. I'm working on a critical document and cannot afford for versions to be lost because of a bad cloud sync.

Office 365 Groups (aka: "unified-groups") are becoming the "standard" share target in Office 365. You can share SharePoint content (files, list items, etc.) with an O365 Group. You can share Microsoft Stream content with an O365 Group. You can share a Flow with an O365 Group. You CANNOT, however, share a PowerApp with an O365 Group. This is a huge issue and greatly complicates our job of "selling" PowerApps as a solution.

For example, we've successfully convinced a LOT of our client groups that an O365 Group is a better solution than "just" a SharePoint site (most of these had sites/site collections in our SP2010 environment). Many of them latched onto Teams as well, and by an large, they've been off & running. Then, they want to build a PowerApp to make it easier for their people to enter or update data. Sure, they can build the app, and since the data is coming from the Team's (or Group's) SharePoint site, permissions is not a problem. However, the Team/Group members cannot actually RUN the PowerApp until it's been shared with them. Since PowerApps only allows sharing with individual users or AD security groups (NOT O365 Groups), they need to either share it with each Team/Group member individually OR they need to have IT create an AD security group and populate it with the Team/Group members. On top of that, as people in the Team/Group change, the owner of the App needs to then update the sharing or have IT update the AD security group. This goes exactly against the concept of Office 365 giving users an easy and coordinated way to manage their Teams/Groups and the apps and services provisioned to them.

Currently you can purge all contents of a user mailbox by using the following commands:

Search-Mailbox -Identity "identity" -DeleteContent -force
Search-mailbox -identity "identity" -SearchDumpsterOnly -DeleteContent

This wipes the user mailbox completely without removing the mailbox itself. There currently is not a way to refine and delete content for specific mailbox or custom folder names while leaving content from other folders in the mailbox alone. Example: Purge only: Junk Email, Deleted Items, Clutter, Custom Folder 1, Custom Folder 2, etc.

Reference:
Search for and delete messages in Exchange 2016
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff459253(v=exchg.160).aspx
Search and delete messages in Exchange 2013
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff459253(v=exchg.150).aspx
Search and delete messages in Exchange 2010
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff459253(v=exchg.141).aspx

Search-Mailbox not working
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/5e58749e-cd6b-478f-83b7-668b890211a4/searchmailbox-not-working?forum=exchange2010

"We cannot identity the specific folder to search. To delete the message in the specific folder, retention policy is a better choice.

The TargetMailbox parameter specifies the identity of the destination mailbox where search results are copied.

The TargetFolder parameter specifies a folder name in which search results are saved in the target mailbox. The folder is created in the target mailbox upon execution.

Since you are going to delete these messages, then use DeleteContent cmdlet. If you want to copies these messages for backup, then you add TargetMailbox parameter with TargetFolder. If you don't want these messages anymore, then just add DeleteContent parameter.

Search-mailbox -identity "AUser" -searchquery {Received:"31/10/2015"} -DeleteContent"

People in the world, both admins and users, are constantly asking whether new features Microsoft has announced as on the way or rolling out are deployed to their tenant yet. This often results in a lot of confusion and probably support cases and questions into Microsoft asking these types of questions.

We could solve this by building some sort of "Is this feature deployed to my tenant yet?" tool. This tool would very simply authenticate the person checking via Azure Active Directory, and then return a simple result for the feature you are checking on. Results could be:

• Yes


• Targeted Release Only


• No

It would also be nice if IT Admins could provide a small bit of text/guidance for users in case they come across a feature where the answer is Yes, but the user does not have access. This could point them towards some sort of Support function, request process, etc so IT has a better idea of the needs of their users.