How to Get Microsoft 365 Contacts Report

Creating bulk Microsoft 365 contacts can be a time-consuming process. To streamline this task, you can create a CSV file containing all the necessary contact information and then import it using PowerShell.

Follow the steps below to bulk import external contacts to Exchange Online.

Monitor your Microsoft 365 contacts to ensure seamless collaboration with external colleagues, clients, and partners. You can update the necessary contact properties and eliminate unwanted clients who may not be needed for your organization.

You can export contacts from Office 365 using the methods below.

Using Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Navigate to Users»Contacts. You can export Microsoft 365 contacts to CSV by clicking on the "Export contacts" icon.

Microsoft PowerShell

The following cmdlets are used to export Microsoft 365 contacts in the Exchange Online PowerShell.

Get-Contact | Select-Object DisplayName, EmailAddresses, Phone, MobilePhone, Company | Export-Csv -Path 'C:\contacts.csv' -NoTypeInformation

Get-MailContact | Export-Csv -Path 'C:\contacts1.csv' -NoTypeInformation

The Get-Contact cmdlet retrieves non-mail properties for contacts, whereas the Get-MailContact cmdlet fetches all mail-related properties.

If you’re an organization with bulk contacts, managing them through the Microsoft 365 admin center can be challenging. Additionally, specifying required attributes in the PowerShell cmdlet to obtain comprehensive details is a time-consuming process.

• You can access in-depth information on Microsoft 365 contacts, such as display name, company name, email ID, department, job title, mobile number, and more.
• Click on the Download/Export icon to download the report in your desired format.

Pro Tip: Make use of the "Company Name" easy filter to view mail contacts from specified companies.

You can add external contacts to distribution lists to facilitate effective communication on shared projects.

Follow the steps below to add a user or contact to a Microsoft 365 distribution group.

However, inappropriate group memberships for these external contacts can lead to loss of sensitive information. Thus, it is crucial to monitor their group memberships to avoid potential issues.

Run the PowerShell script below to get the group membership of Microsoft 365 contacts.

$contacts= Get-MgContact

$output = foreach ($contact in $contacts) { 

foreach ($group in (Get-MgContactTransitiveMemberOf -OrgContactId $contact.Id)) { 

$groupName = (Get-MgGroup -Filter "id eq '$($group.Id)'").DisplayName 

[pscustomobject]@{ 

'Contact Display Name' = $contact.DisplayName 

'Distribution Group Name'= $groupName 

'Contact ID'= $contact.Id 

} 

} 

 } 

$output | Export-Csv -Path "D:\GroupMembershipofContacts.csv" -NoTypeInformation 

• Explore complete details including group name, contact name, email ID, company, job title, sign-in status, and other relevant information.
• Pro Tip: Leverage the graphical representation functionality to visually get all groups a mail contact belongs to.

Effective management of Microsoft 365 contacts is essential for enhancing interactions with external partners. By maintaining up-to-date contact information, your users can easily reach out to the right individuals for specific tasks or updates.

Follow the ways below to manage mail contacts in Exchange Online.

Change Microsoft 365 contact information

Run the below PowerShell cmdlet to update contact information in Exchange Online.

Set-Contact "<ContactName>" -Title "<JobTitle>" -Department "<DepartmentName>" -Company "<CompanyName>" -Manager "<ManagerName>"

You can use the below cmdlet to modify mail-related properties of Microsoft 365 contacts.

Set-MailContact -Identity "<ContactName>" -ExternalEmailAddress "<EmailID>"

Remove contacts from Microsoft 365

Run the below cmdlet in Exchange Online PowerShell to remove a Microsoft 365 contact from your organization.

Remove-MailContact -Identity "<MailContactIdentity>"

• Acquire detailed records like event time, performed operation, performed user, contact name, and modified parameters.
• Pro Tip: Apply the "Performed Operation" easy filter to retrieve events related to specific operations such as removing contacts, creating new contacts, and updating contact information.

Exchange Online mail users are similar to mail contacts. They are people outside your organization and have an external email address. However, mail users can have a user account in your organization with login credentials similar to an unlicensed user.

Follow the steps below to create a mail user in Microsoft 365.

Once created, they will be displayed on the Contacts page of your Exchange Online admin center as well as the Active users page of your Microsoft 365 admin center.

Convert mail user to a mailbox user in Microsoft 365

If the mail user doesn't have a mailbox in their organization, you can convert them to a mailbox user. To convert a mail user to a mailbox user, simply assign an Exchange Online license to the mail user by navigating to the Active users page of your Microsoft 365 admin portal.

Emails sent to mail users are directed to their specified external email address. However, if you've allocated an Exchange Online license to the mail user, the emails will be routed to the Exchange Online mailbox given by your organization.

Note: After assigning licenses to mail users, they will no longer be displayed in the Contacts page of your Exchange Online admin center. You can manage them from the Active users page of your Microsoft 365 admin center.

• Here, you get entire details on event time, performed operation, who performed, mail username, and updated information.
• Pro Tip: Utilize the "Modified Rule" column to obtain comprehensive information about all the properties of an Exchange Online mail user.