Microsoft 365 – PowerShell – Options to send mail – part1 – exploring Send-MailMessage PowerShell CMDLET

Hi All,

Greetings for the day!!! Today new learning 🙂

Recently I got requirement to send an email using PowerShell. Since I never tried, bit googled and I found couple of options. So sharing. SHARING IS CARING 🙂

Option 1 – Using PowerShell CMDLET – Send-MailMessage

Details

• Syntax

Send-MailMessage
    [-Attachments <String[]>]
    [-Bcc <String[]>]
    [[-Body] <String>]
    [-BodyAsHtml]
    [-Encoding <Encoding>]
    [-Cc <String[]>]
    [-DeliveryNotificationOption <DeliveryNotificationOptions>]
    -From <String>
    [[-SmtpServer] <String>]
    [-Priority <MailPriority>]
    [-ReplyTo <String[]>]
    [[-Subject] <String>]
    [-To] <String[]>
    [-Credential <PSCredential>]
    [-UseSsl]
    [-Port <Int32>]
    [<CommonParameters>]

• We must specify a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server or the Send-MailMessage command fails
• Example – Send mail from one user to another user

#get the credentials
$cred = Get-Credential

#using Send-MailMessage CMDLET
Send-MailMessage -From 'prasham@knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com' -To 'prasham1@knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com' -Subject 'LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL' -SmtpServer "smtp.office365.com" -UseSsl -Port 587 -Credential $cred

• Here for Microsoft 365,
  • SMTP Server is – smtp.office365.com
  • Port – 587
• User – prasham@knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com (Prasham Sabadra) sending mail to user – prasham1@knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com (Prasham1 Sabadra)
• We need credential of the user who has permission to perform this action – to send an email.
• Following are the snaps of receivers inbox and senders sent items

Receiver inbox

Senders sent items

• Here I’ll like to highlight one good option to this CMDLET – DeliveryNotificationOption
• Following are the possible values for “DeliveryNotificationOption”
  • None: No notification.
  • OnSuccess: Notify if the delivery is successful.
  • OnFailure: Notify if the delivery is unsuccessful.
  • Delay: Notify if the delivery is delayed.
  • Never: Never notify.
• We could specify the options by separating with comma – ‘,’ as

#using Send-MailMessage CMDLET exploring - DeliveryNotificationOption

Send-MailMessage -DeliveryNotificationOption OnFailure, OnSuccess -From 'prasham@knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com' -To 'prasham1@knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com' -Subject 'LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL' -SmtpServer "smtp.office365.com" -UseSsl -Port 587 -Credential $cred

• As mail sent successfully, sender will receive success notification email as shown in below snap

However, there is Warning from Microsoft

The Send-MailMessage cmdlet is obsolete. This cmdlet does not guarantee secure connections to SMTP servers. While there is no immediate replacement available in PowerShell, we recommend you do not use Send-MailMessage.

We will see other alternative is PnP CMDLET to send mail in our next article

We have some very good articles related to Mail and Microsoft 365

• Microsoft 365 : Exchange Online / PowerShell – PowerShell – Resolving error – Send-MailMessage : The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.7.57 Client not authenticated to send mail – https://knowledge-junction.in/2023/02/07/microsoft-365-exchange-online-powershell-resolving-error-send-mailmessage-the-smtp-server-requires-a-secure-connection-or-the-client-was-not-authenticated-the-server-response-was-5-7-57-c/
• M365: Microsoft Graph – Part 10 – Send Email using Graph API from Console Application (Background Job) – https://knowledge-junction.in/2020/03/15/m365-microsoft-graph-part-10-send-email-using-graph-api-from-console-application-background-job/
• Share Multiple Attachments of SharePoint List via Email using Power Automate – https://knowledge-junction.in/2021/02/13/share-multiple-attachments-of-sharepoint-list-via-email-using-power-automate/
• Power Platform : Power Automate – sending email to SharePoint group (all users / members of the SharePoint group) – https://knowledge-junction.in/2022/07/13/power-platform-power-automate-sending-email-to-sharepoint-group-all-users-members-of-the-sharepoint-group/

REFERENCES

• Send-MailMessage

Thanks for reading !!! HAVE a FANTASTIC LEARNING AHEAD 🙂 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 🙂