1. Perform a message search in Outlook on the web: Office 365 (Outlook on the web) - Search for messages and people, and look for the folder it's in: Office 365 - Find the folder location of a message when using the search function.

   If the message is found

   • And is located in the 'Inbox', the issue is most likely due to the view sorting/filter setting
   • And is located in some other folder, assist the customer in moving it to there desired folder.

   If the message is not found

   • Via a search in the mailbox, search in the 'Recover Deleted Items' folder: Office 365 - Recover deleted items.
   • Via a search in the 'Recover Deleted Items' folder, confirm that the search terms used are appropriate, based on: Office 365 (Outlook on the web) - Search for messages and people.
   • Via specific search terms noted above, contact the original sender to ask them to re-send the message.

1. If you received a Non-Delivery Report, inspect it for any error message or indication of the sending issue, and proceed to troubleshoot using that information; a mail message trace is not needed. Learn more about mail delivery errors in the following document: Office 365 / WiscMail / WiscMail Plus - Understanding SMTP errors.
2. If you did not receive a Non-Delivery Report, check your 'Sent Items' folder to confirm that you did indeed send the message. If so, send the message to its intended recipient again; a mail message trace is not needed.
3. If you find the message in your 'Sent Items' folder and send it again but the recipient still cannot find it, then:

   1. Perform a complete search of their mailbox for the message, and to check their local client and server Inbox Rules to make sure they do not have a rule that would have deleted, forwarded, or moved the message outside of their Inbox.

   2. If the recipient is a UW-Madison Office 365 user, have them follow the instructions to search their mailbox in Outlook on the web, here: Office 365 (Outlook on the web) - Search for messages and people.

   3. If the recipient finds the message or confirms it was forwarded, a mail message trace is not needed. Note: If the message was not in the inbox, it may have been moved to another location/folder due to an inbox rule or junk mail filters.

   4. If the recipient is a UW-Madison Office 365 user, and their Office 365 account is configured in any non-Microsoft client, ask them to remove their account from any and all non-Microsoft clients and send the message to recipient again. If they receive the message, then a mail message trace is not needed.

4. If the intended recipient cannot find the message after trying the above steps, the message may have been deleted. If the recipient is a UW-Madison Microsoft 365 user, have them follow the steps to search their 'Recover Deleted Items' folder: Office 365 - Recover deleted items and recover the deleted message if it's found. If the message is found and recovered, a mail message trace is not needed.
5. If the message cannot be found or re-sent after working through the above steps, and you would like to request a mail message trace to confirm that the message was actually delivered, please note:
   
   
   • All message trace requests are subject to the review and approval of Microsoft 365 technical leadership.
   • Only requests to trace messages related to UW-Madison business will reviewed.
   • Traces cannot be performed on messages sent/received more than 30 days ago.

   If you would like to pursue requesting a mail message trace, please contact the DoIT Help Desk and provide the following information:

   • Sender email address
   • Recipient email address
   • Subject of message
   • Date and time when the message was sent (must be within 30 days)

Important (What a message trace will return):

• For a recipient outside UW-Madison's Office 365 environment: it will confirm if the mail server accepted the message.
• For a recipient inside UW-Madison's Office 365 environment: it will confirm if the mailbox accepted the message.
• In both cases, this process will not retrieve the message.
• Important: M365 team will not be able to provide any additional details on what happened to the message after it was delivered to the destination mailbox (we will not be able to tell what caused the message to missing).

1. If a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) was received by the original sender, then request the NDR from the sender. Once obtained, inspect the NDR for any error message or indication of the sending issue, and proceed to troubleshoot using that information; a mail message trace is not needed. Learn more about mail delivery errors in the following document: Office 365 / WiscMail / WiscMail Plus - Understanding SMTP errors.
2. If a Non-Delivery Report was not received by the original sender, then request that the sender search their 'Sent Items' folder to confirm that they did indeed send the message. If they find the message, ask them to send it to you again; a mail message trace is not needed.
3. If the sender finds the message in their 'Sent Items' folder:

   1. Is there a forward on the account.

   2. Perform a complete search of your own mailbox in Outlook on the web.

   3. Perform another search within the user's mailbox but make sure you are in the Junk Email folder.

   4. If you find the message, Look for the folder it's in. If it's in the 'Inbox' review the user's sort/filter settings.

   5. Check your local client and server Inbox Rules and junk mail filters to make sure you do not have a block or rule that would have placed the message in your junk email folder, deleted, forwarded, or moved the message outside of the Inbox.

   6. If you find the message or confirm it was forwarded, a mail message trace is not needed.

   7. If your Office 365 account is configured in any non-Microsoft client, remove your account from any and all non-Microsoft clients and ask the sender to send the message to you again. If you receive the message, then a mail message trace is not needed.

4. If the message is not found via a search in your mailbox, search in your 'Recover Deleted Items' folder and recover the message if it's found: Office 365 - Recover deleted items. If you find and recover the message, a mail message trace is not needed.
5. If the message is not found via a search in your 'Recover Deleted Items' folder, confirm that the search terms are appropriate, based on: Office 365 (Outlook on the web) - Search for messages and people.
6. Ask the sender to resend the message using plain text format instead of html/rich text. If the plain text formatted message is successfully received, notify the sender that the issue is caused by message content and being tagged by our spam scanning software as spam/junk.
7. If you cannot find the message after working through the above steps, and you would like to request a mail message trace to confirm that the message was actually received, please note:
   
   
   • All message trace requests are subject to the review and approval of Office 365 technical leadership.
   • Only requests to trace messages related to UW-Madison business will reviewed.
   • Traces cannot be performed on messages sent/received more than 30 days ago.

   If you would like to pursue requesting a mail message trace, please contact the DoIT Help Desk and provide the following information:

   • Sender email address
   • Recipient email address
   • Subject of message
   • Date and time when the message was sent (must be within 30 days)

Important (What a message trace will return):

• For a recipient outside UW-Madison's Microsoft 365 environment: it will confirm if the mail server accepted the message.
• For a recipient inside UW-Madison's Microsoft 365 environment: it will confirm if the mailbox accepted the message.
• In both cases, this process will not retrieve the message.

Outlook Windows Desktop Client:
If you are using Outlook's Windows desktop client, please review the following article.

Outlook on the web:
Outlook on the web (OWA) does not currently have a search capability for folders. Searching for folders is a manual process in which you can follow these steps: 

1. Click the chevron icon next to each folder in your left hand menu to expand them.
2. Search each expandable folder for folders that may have been moved there.