The Clutter option is a new Exchange Online feature, which was created for helping Office 365 customers (Exchange Online recipient) to effectively manage their mailbox content by “relocate” non-important or non-Crucial E-mail message to a specific folder named Clutter.
The Exchange Online Clutter feature is automatically activated for all Exchange Online recipients and the issue with this “automation” is that, many times the Exchange administrator doesn’t want to activate the Clutter option or the users don’t understand the Clutter feature and the report that some mail are “missing” (mail items that were “moved” to the Clutter folder)
The good news is that every user has the option of disabling the clutter option but the less good news is that at the current time, the Exchange Online management web interface doesn’t include an option of disabling the Clutter option in bulk mode
The solution is to use a PowerShell command that runs in a bulk mode on all of the existing Exchange Online mailboxes and disable the Clutter option.
The PowerShell command that we need to run is very simple
Connect to Exchange Online using PowerShell
PowerShell console – First-time configuration
To be able to find the built-in PowerShell console, use the search option in the start menu by looking for the word PowerShell.
In the search results, we can see the required PowerShell console named – Windows PowerShell
To be able to run the required PowerShell commands, we will need to activate the Windows PowerShell console using the option of – Run as administrator
Right click on the Windows PowerShell icon and choose the menu – Run as administrator
We will need a PowerShell command that will provide the required permission for running PowerShell command
In the following screenshot, we can see an example. To execute the PowerShell command, press the ENTER key
Running the PowerShell set of command for connecting Exchange Online
The connection to Exchange Online by using remote PowerShell is implemented by using three sets of PowerShell command.
$UserCredential = Get-Credential
$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
Import-PSSession $Session
Technically, we can copy this set of command and paste it in the Windows PowerShell console.
When we use the option of “copy and paste” for paste a “long set” of PowerShell command, we can experience some problem which relates to issues such as – spaces etc.
If you experience such problems, try to paste the PowerShell command by copy and paste each one of the PowerShell command set.
Step 1#3 – using the credentials PowerShell command
Copy and paste the following PowerShell command
As a result, an authentication window will appear
Type in your Office 365 global administrator credentials.
Step 2#3 – connecting to Exchange Online
The following PowerShell command serves for specifying the Exchange Online URL address that is used for the remote PowerShell session
Step 3#3 – Import Exchange Online PowerShell cmdlets
This is the last phase; which we import all of the Exchange Online cmdlets to the existing PowerShell console.
Copy and paste the following PowerShell command
In the following screenshot, we can see the result.
Disable Clutter for all users using PowerShell
To be able to disable the Clutter option for all existing Exchange Online mailboxes, in the PowerShell console run the following command:
In the following screenshot, we can see the result, the PowerShell command will find all of the existing Exchange Online mailboxes and disable the Clutter feature
It’s important to mention that the procedure of disabling the Clutter option will be “executed” only for existing Exchange Online mailboxes.
In case that a new Exchange Online mailbox was created after you have run the PowerShell command, you will need to run again the PowerShell command for disabling the Clutter option for the “New Exchange Online mailboxes”.
PowerShell command syntax – Office 365 | Article series index
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VERY nice documented steps! Thank you so much!
Duane
Perfect, this has been a headache for us , with over 380 mailboxes, I dreaded doing them one by one.
Thanks fo a great , well explained set of instructions, worked like a charm
Great write up. What happens to the email in the clutter folder after this is run?
The clutter folder is still visible in your Outlook list and the existing mail stays there until you move it.
Oke, nice. But incredibly slow execution of commands. This PS would never make it in the Linux world. Too verbose, too non forgiving, to slow. MS still has some things to learn.
As a newish Exchange admin, I needed something that I could verify the commands and was not a script that I would have to parse through for a couple of hours. Thank you very much for the two cmdlets. Worked perfectly.