Microsoft 365 administrators could not create new or modify existing email transport connectors in some circumstances.
In an unannounced change, Microsoft recently disabled the M365 Admins ability to activate/enable newly-created inbound connectors for the following SKU(s):
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Exchange Online Essentials
A new Microsoft update causes this issue and it has nothing to do with Xink. Here are the possible solutions if this occurs:
Solution #1
We highly recommend using the Xink Add-in for MS Outlook and Outlook on the web. However, this will not work for mobile devices for now.
Solution #2
As per the Microsoft article, customers that experience this behavior must contact Microsoft support with a business justification to enable an Inbound connector of OnPremises type within their tenant. The customer also needs to follow the steps below:
- Before enabling the server side, we need to generate a unique Domain and certificate.
- Add a new domain in your Office365 and paste the unique domain that you have generated
- Select MX Record, click continue and copy the "Points to address or value".
NOTE: The MX record you have added is literally invalid, its sole purpose is to demonstrate your control over the domain. This suffix is supposed to indicate that the record shouldn't be used for direct purpose.
- Go back to your Xink integration and select "add validation record" and paste the value of "Points to address or value".
- Go back to your Office 365 and finish the validation. Make sure to select "Skip and do this later (Not recommended)
- Make sure the added certificate is set to "No services selected".
- Continue to enable server-side integration. This will create a transport rule, inbound and outbound connectors. The inbound connector is disabled by default. You need to contact MS and provide a business justification. You may use the sample spiel below:
"I need to enable the Xink Inbound Connector (Exchange Online inbound connector of the OnPremises type) to route our organization's email through the Xink service to get email signatures."
As announced in this Microsoft article, to enable the inbound connector, Microsoft 365 customers are asked to contact Microsoft support and provide a business justification for doing so.
Once you contact MS they might ask a few more questions. Please get ready and provide the necessary information. It's also a good idea to provide the screenshot below.
You just need to connect to your exchange online and run Get-InboundConnector
