Some Microsoft 365 accounts default to block automatic email forwarding as part of their outbound spam protection. If external forwarding is disabled for your Microsoft 365 account, you will see a specific bounce message in your inbox at Microsoft 365 after attempting to set up forwarding. The text bounce would look like this:
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Remote Server returned '550 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding. Please contact your administrator for further assistance. AS(7555)'
Enable Automatic External Forwarding for All Mailboxes
1. Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and choose Threat management > Policy > Anti-spam or head directly to the Anti-spam settings page here: https://protection.office.com/antispam
Note that the policies you see in your own admin may differ from those shown here, as these are only the default policies.
2. Click on Anti-spam outbound policy (Default) and scroll to click the Edit protection settings link at the bottom of the sidebar.
3. Find the section called Forwarding Rules, and the dropdown list called Automatic Forwarding Rules. Pull that list down and choose On - Forwarding is enabled. Click Save at the bottom.
Enable Automatic External Forwarding for Individual Mailboxes
1. Log in to your Office 365 Security & Compliance portal for Microsoft 365 and choose Threat management > Policy > Anti-spam or head directly to the Anti-spam settings page here: https://protection.office.com/antispam
Note that the policies you see in your own admin may differ from those shown here, as these are only the default policies.
3. Click + Create policy and choose Outbound.
4. Give your new outbound spam filter policy a Name and Description.
Click Next and search to find the user account you want to allow to forward, i.e. the email account that you are forwarding from, which will display under the Users field after you select it.
Click Next again, scroll to the Forwarding rules section, and click the dropdown under Automatic forwarding rules. Choose On - Forwarding is enabled, then click Next.
Review the settings on the last screen and click Create to create your new outbound policy for the specified user(s).
Related Guides
- Basic mailbox settings for Outlook and other email clients (POP/IMAP)
- Diagnostics log collection in Support and Recovery Assistant
- Add an Outlook.com or Office 365 account
- How to Create Email Account in the Control Panel
- Groups naming policy
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