Audience: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses Office 365 for enterprises   With the release of the Microsoft Online Services Diagnostics and Logging Support Toolkit 4.6 , we introduce a number of exciting new features and improve the user experience yet again so both users (information workers) and administrators can collect the right data, for the right problem.  In this release, we made an effort to make the tool and its output, more user friendly.  Not only did we make improvements to the UI to help guide users through the data collection process, we made many of the reports that MOSDAL generates more readable.  Please read below for additional details on all the improvements MOSDAL 4.6 has to offer: User Interface Changes – Added information to help users collect the right data, as well as understand what data MOSDAL is collecting. New Languages – MOSDAL is now offered in Russian and Korean languages. Smaller download – MOSDAL will only download .NET 4.0 and Windows Installer 3.0 if they are not present on the system.  This reduces the size of the installation package by more than half. Exchange ActiveSync diagnostics – In addition to testing the Exchange Autodiscover process, MOSDAL now also performs ActiveSync connectivity tests.  The tests are run sequentially, and the results are now viewable in a web format that is similar to https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com. Compatibility with Microsoft Office 2013 and Microsoft Office Click-To-Run – MOSDAL is now aware of and will collect data for Outlook 2013 and Lync 2013.  In addition, if you installed Office 2013 through Click-To-Run, MOSDAL will collect additional data to help troubleshoot Click-to-Run installation and activation issues. Compatibility with Microsoft Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and .NET 4.5 – MOSDAL will now run without issues on Microsoft Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and on systems with .NET 4.5 installed. WebDAV ETL component logging for SharePoint Online – Logs are collected by MOSDAL to help troubleshoot issues WebDAV connections to SharePoint Online. Directory Synchronization, Domains/DNS and Exchange Hybrid Configuration reports in XML – Many of the reports generated by MOSDAL are now in XML format to make them easier to read and easier to create automated diagnostics to help identify issues quicker. Windows Network Trace logging – Network tracing utilizes the Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) framework available in Windows. Network components (such as Winsock, TCP/IP, NDIS, packet-capture, and so on) register as ETW trace providers and emit events related to network activity. Any recordable activity of significance can be an event logged to ETW. Tracing for these network components and packet captures can be enabled using the netsh trace context which acts as an ETW controller.  For more information, see     https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd569137(v=vs.85).aspx . Resources Here are some resources to get started with MOSDAL 4.6: Download MOSDAL 4.6 and the available training MOSDAL Knowledge Base article Here are some additional resources where you can see the tool in action: Exchange Online: 2555008 How to troubleshoot free/busy issues when you use Exchange Federation in the Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises environment 2581088 How to troubleshoot issues that prevent you from viewing other clients’ free/busy information in Office Outlook 2007 and in Outlook 2010 in an Office 365 environment VIDEO :  Troubleshooting Issues with Free/Busy Information in Office Outlook Clients for Office 365 Lync Online: 2566790 Automatic sign-in, domain federation, and other features do not work as expected in Lync Online when you use a custom domain in Office 365Automatic sign-in, domain federation, and other features do not work as expected in Lync Online when you use a custom domain in Office 365 2541980  How to troubleshoot authentication and connectivity issues in Lync Online 2392146  Instant messages to federated Lync contacts fail VIDEO :  Troubleshooting Sign-In Issues in Lync Online for Office 365 VIDEO :  Troubleshooting Instant Message Failures to Federated Contcacts in Lync Online for Office 365 VIDEO :  Troubleshooting “Cannot Connect to the Server” error when using Lync Mobile for Office 365 Office 365 Suite: 2515404 Troubleshoot domain verification issues in Office 365 2621267 How to view and verify CNAME records, MX records, TXT records and SRV records in Office 365 VIDEO :  Troubleshooting Domain Verification Errors in Office 365 Identity federation/Single Sign On: 2598459 How to use the Microsoft Online Services Diagnostics and Logging (MOSDAL) Support Toolkit to diagnose identity federation issues in Office 365 2433327  How to use MOSDAL to enable tracing for the Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant to troubleshoot rich client authentication issues VIDEO :  How to Use MOSDAL to Diagnose Identity Federation Issues in Office 365 Directory Synchronization (Co-Existence): 2643629 Individual Active Directory Domain Services objects do not synchronize to Office 365 2647098 Duplicate or invalid attributes prevent Office 365 directory synchronization VIDEO :  Troubleshooting Duplicate or Invalid User Attributes that Prevent Directory Synchronization in Office 365 SharePoint Online: 2629108  How to use the “Open with Explorer” command and how to troubleshoot issues with this option in SharePoint Online for Office 365 Visit the  MOSDAL wiki page for more information.

One of the many conveniences of Office 365 is that you can access your email and calendar on any device via both Outlook Web App and your desktop Outlook 2010 program. Outlook Web App and Outlook 2010 share most of the same features, but sometimes there are small differences when performing some common tasks.   We’ve created two new video training courses describing some of the tasks that are frequent search requests by  Office 365 customers.  These  training courses explain some email and calendar features, and then tell you how to use them in both Outlook Web App and Outlook 2010.   Create an internal team alias in Office 365 Save time and effort by setting up a distribution group that appears in your organization’s shared address book.  When you send one email to a distribution group, it goes to all members of the group. It’s a handy way to encourage collaboration among team members with shared interests.   Share your Office 365 calendar You can invite people to view the appointments and meetings  in your calendar in two ways, and in each case, you choose how much information you want them to see. You can share a calendar with selected people inside your organization, or you can publish your calendar to create a URL that you can give to anybody so they can view your calendar.   You can find these latest training videos on the Office 365 Video Training Courses wiki.  If you have ideas for other Office 365 training courses that you’d like to see, add a comment to this blog or send email to crsfeed@microsoft.com .

Yes!!!!! The New Microsoft Project reaches RTM! and yes that means the same for the rest of Office: Office Reaches RTM! Time to ready yourselves!

The following video walks you through using SharePoint Online’s Business Connectivity Services (BCS) to connect your line of business (LoB) systems via a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service. This allows data from the LoB system on-premises to be viewed and edited within your SharePoint Online environment.   (Please visit the site to view this video)   For more info about BCS, see Notes on Business Connectivity Services (BCS) in SharePoint Online .   Thanks to Manas and Alex from Microsoft Support for putting together this video.   Let us know what you think!   The SharePoint Online Community Team  

Audience: Exchange Online/Office 365 administrators Author: Ram Poornalingam, Senior Program Manager, Exchange   We’re implementing a new policy for migration batches in the cloud-based service. Active migration batches with a status of “Synced” that have no administrator-initiated activity for the last 90 days will be stopped, and then deleted 30 days later if no further activity is taken by the administrator.   What constitutes activity by the administrator?   Stopping and restarting a migration batch Editing a migration batch by using the Exchange Control Panel or the Set-MigrationBatch cmdlet in Windows PowerShell.   How do we determine if a migration batch is inactive? There is a “Last modified time” property for migration batches, and if the value for this property is more than 90 days, the batch is stopped. If the batch remains inactive for another 30 days (in other words, when the value of this property reaches 120 days), the migration batch is deleted.   This new policy applies to all migration types: Cutover Exchange migrations, staged Exchange migrations, and IMAP migrations.   Why are we doing this? Inactive migration batches consume resources in the Microsoft datacenter. By stopping and then deleting these batches, we can free up resources and help improve the migration experience for customers who are actively migrating mailboxes to Office 365.   For more information about migration, see the following topics on help.outlook.com:   Manage Migration Batches in Exchange Online Cutover Exchange migration Staged Exchange migration IMAP migration

Getting access to the new Project slides is in hot demand these days and voila! (see expect a lot more in the future…) https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Australia/2012/OSP216   Microsoft Project Online Overview https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/Australia/2012/AIT002   Project Server 2013, a Landmark Release!

Dear community, important reminder that the Project Server 2007 mainstream support ends in a few days on October 9th 2012 to be precise! See for yourself on the official Microsoft Product Lifecycle site: https://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=Project+Server+2007&Filter=FilterNO We have lots of content to help you upgrade to Project Server 2010 on TechNet: Upgrade and migration for Project Server 2010 as well as a rich partner ecosystem to help you move forward: https://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/partners.aspx Want to upgrade to Project Server 2013 (note it’s still in Preview and not final), see this: Plan for upgrade to Project Server 2013 Start your upgrade today!

Did you know that we have a collection of how-to videos on Outlook Web App, desktop clients, and mobile phones? Did you know you can access these videos all in one convenient place?   For a list of all of the Outlook Web App, desktop client, and mobile phone videos, see Outlook Web App Help Videos .   The help videos available include: Creating Inbox Rules Sending Automatic Replies Finding items in your mailbox Viewing messages by conversation Sending and receiving email from other email systems Redirecting incoming messages to another email account Setting up a POP or IMAP email program to send and receive messages Setting up email in Outlook 2007 Setting up email in Outlook 2010 Learning to use contacts, chat, and groups Learning to use the calendar Setting up your phone for Exchange ActiveSync Setting up your phone for POP and IMAP Do you have an idea for a video you’d like to see? Let us know!

Audience: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses Office 365 for enterprises   Written by Brendan Reeves, User Researcher II at Microsoft Our user-centered engineering process needs your input to make sure Office 365 matches your needs. The Office 365 User Experience team would like to learn more about how your organization uses Office 365. We are seeking feedback and information on how Office 365 helps your company function. This is your opportunity to share feedback with the product team and help us improve and evolve the Office 365 service. Please go to https://illumeweb.smdisp.net/collector/Survey.ashx?Name=O365users to submit your name, phone number, email address, and company name. The information you provide will only be used to recruit participants for user research projects. Your level of participation in research projects is completely up to you. There will be projects that only ask for a very low-level of engagement (e.g. surveys) and those that require high level engagement (e.g. on-site visits). As a thank you for your participation, we will provide a gratuity ranging from software to gift cards depending on study type. Study types include: Complete a 5-15 minute online survey Attend online webinar Usability lab studies On-site visit to your organization by 3-4 members of the Office 365 team for approximately 3 hours We appreciate your time and understand that it is valuable. If you are unable to participate in any research projects in the near future, you are still encouraged to sign up. User experience research is an ongoing process throughout the product development cycle and you will have the opportunity to participate in lighter weight research projects like surveys, webinars, or conference calls down the road. You can participate in as many or as few research studies as you like and remove yourself from the list at any time. Sincerely, Brendan Reeves If you would like to be removed from the Microsoft User Research program email uccoord@microsoft.com with “Remove” in the subject line.  

Updated 9/27: Thank you for attending this Office 365 Expert Discussions Series. If you missed it, don’t worry! You can view the  Lync Recording here  and below.  Microsoft Support will be presenting a series of webcasts called the  Office 365 Expert Discussion Series ,  to showcase our tools and content that can be used to help make your Office 365 experience better and help solve common issues more quickly.  (Please visit the site to view this video) Team Members from Exchange Online Escalation Team will be on hand to answer a few selected technical questions followed by open Q&A. Bring any technical questions you may have regarding Exchange Online such as tips for resolving directory sync issues, managing users, improving Outlook connectivity. Join us  on Thursday, September 27th at 8:00 AM Pacific Time  for this exciting webcast. The duration of the meeting is planned for 1 hour. After the meeting concludes a recording of the session will be published to this blog post and the  Office 365 YouTube channel . Microsoft Support will be monitoring the Office 365 Expert Discussion  Forum  and  Wiki  as well as the Community closely for this topic for a week after the event to answer any questions about the live session. Be sure to view our past Expert Discussions here .  To sign up for this webcast please  download and save the calendar invite below  where you will find the Lync invite and all other Office 365 Expert Discussion information.  We are excited to see you there!  —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Presenter :  Jeremy Kelly , Principle Escalation Engineer from Microsoft Commercial Technical Support and other Microsoft Support Team members. Date/Time:  Thursday September 27th , at 8:00 AM Pacific Time . (1 Hour presentation) Online Meeting Information: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. à Join Lync meeting            Join by phone +14257063500 (USA – Redmond Campus)                     English (United States) +18883203585 (USA – Redmond Campus)                     English (United States)   Find a local number   Conference ID: 35047018     Forgot your dial-in PIN? | Help      [! ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Audience: Office 365 MVP and  Grid Members  and open to anyone who is interested in Office 365 Expert Discussions.