How to list the last messages sent or received by a recipient

We have described in a previous article how to list unnecessary resources in Exchange. However, the suggested reports, Mailbox by Traffic Level and Distribution Group Usage, do not allow you to drill down to the subject line of the message and list the last message or messages sent or received by an Exchange recipient, whether it is a mailbox, distribution group or public folder.

The steep track with PowerShell

As usual, PowerShell has some ability to extract this information. In the case of on-premises Exchange, the Get-MessageTrackingLog command and the -Sender and -Recipients parameters are used. However, the procedure is a bit complicated and limited by the retention date of the tracking logs on the Exchange servers, i.e. 30 days by default.) In the case of Exchange Online, the command is called Get-MessageTrace and the results returned are even more limited: 1000 lines and 10 days maximum according to Microsoft documentation, 7 according to our experience.

With the Chronological Traffic Activity report

A Promodag Reports report template allows you to extract the last n messages sent or received without any limitation on the number of results and without any other limitation on the period than the one induced by the dates of the tracking logs imported into the database. This is the Chronological Traffic Activity report. Let's explore this feature now.

• First of all, the reporting period will be determined by checking that the necessary data has been imported into the database (File > Database properties option).
• Next, choose the type of Exchange recipient on which the search is to be carried out and, if necessary, select this recipient by display name or by attribute (for example, all the mailboxes of a particular department).
• You can also select the correspondents to whom the recipients have sent messages or from whom they have received messages, e.g. external correspondents.
• Finally, select from the options 1 (or 5, or 10...), Biggest, From Mailboxes, Sent or Received, By Message Date.

For example, here are the last 5 messages, received, by the Support mailbox, from external correspondents, in December 2021:

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Promodag Reports has many other features that are described in this blog or in our knowledge base. Download it for a free 45-day trial and write to us if you would like to ask us any question or submit a support request.