For Customer Exchange Administrators |
Summary
ContactMonkey currently uses a Microsoft technology called Exchange Web Services (EWS) when you send a campaign via our Office 365 Web Add-in. EWS is used to determine all the unique recipients who should receive your email based on what you entered on the “To” field (typically distribution lists). The unique members are subsequently used as the mailing list for emails sent with ContactMonkey.
On February 28th, 2025, Microsoft will release changes to how Office Add-ins use Exchange Online (EWS) tokens. These tokens are a key part of how ContactMonkey interacts with your internal mail systems. You can read more details regarding the deprecation of Exchange Online tokens here. This change means that action is needed to continue allowing ContactMonkey to integrate with your internal mail systems.
Note: EWS is only required if your teams are using "Dynamic Distribution Lists". If your team is not using Dynamic Distribution lists, you can switch your expansion method to use Graph API instead. Please reach out to support@contactmonkey.com if you choose to move in this direction.
How to Extend
To ensure uninterrupted access to ContactMonkey, we kindly ask your Microsoft administrator to extend the lifetime of Exchange Online Tokens by doing the following in PowerShell:
- To run the commands you need to connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.
- Open PowerShell.
- Run the command
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement
. For more information about this command, see Exchange Online PowerShell. - To be sure you are on the latest version of the module, run the command
Update-Module -Name ExchangeOnlineManagement
. - Run the command
Connect-ExchangeOnline
. Sign in with your Microsoft 365 administrator credentials. - To extend the lifetime, you can then run
Set-AuthenticationPolicy –AllowLegacyExchangeTokens -Identity "LegacyExchangeTokens"
- To check the current status, run
Get-AuthenticationPolicy -AllowLegacyExchangeTokens
this should return “True”. - The above steps are also outlined in Microsoft's documentation here
The above switch which allows admins to Extend Exchange token lifetime until June.
Note: RunningGet-AuthenticationPolicy -AllowLegacyExchangeTokens
will only show the legacy token status as set by the administrator. If the administrator has never changed the settings, the command returns (Not Set). If the token status is (Not Set) when the February deployment by Microsoft to turn off legacy tokens is implemented, the token status will still be (Not Set) even though legacy tokens are off. The following table shows the behavior of legacy Exchange Online tokens based on the token status when the change is applied. This is summarized in Microsoft's documentation here.
Legacy token admin setting | Legacy token behavior before February 28th change | Legacy token behavior after February 28th change | Legacy token behavior after June change |
(Not Set) | Tokens on | Tokens off | Tokens off |
False | Tokens off | Tokens off | Tokens off |
True | Tokens on | Tokens on | Tokens off |
Once you have completed the above step, or If you have any questions or need support, please don’t hesitate to reach out to support+ews@contactmonkey.com.
ContactMonkey will be transitioning to OAuth based EWS expansion scheduled to be deployed in March. We are actively working on a seamless transition and will keep you updated on our progress.
FAQ
Q: Is ContactMonkey going to migrate to Graph API to perform distribution list expansion in the future?
A: Graph API implementation has already been built out and is available for you to use. There is currently a feature parity gap on the Microsoft side, which results in the inability of Graph API to query Dynamic Distribution Lists. Microsoft is aware of this gap and is actively working on bringing Graph API up to parity with EWS.
Q: Will ContactMonkey provide another update once the transition to Microsoft's suggested path forward is complete?
A: Yes, we will be providing you with an update.
Note: Microsoft will automatically be disabling legacy tokens for customers who have extended in June 2025.