Enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync for a mailbox in Exchange Online

Article
02/22/2023

You can use the EAC or Exchange Online PowerShell to enable or disable Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for a user mailbox. Exchange ActiveSync is a client protocol that lets users synchronize a mobile device with their Exchange mailbox. Exchange ActiveSync is enabled by default when a user mailbox is created. To learn more, see Exchange ActiveSync in Exchange Online.

What do you need to know before you begin?

Estimated time to complete: 2 minutes.
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Mobile devices" entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online topic.
For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts for the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Online or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the new Exchange admin center to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync

In the new EAC, navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes.
In the list of user mailboxes, click the mailbox that you want to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync for. A display pane is shown for the selected user mailbox.
Under Mailbox settings > Email apps, click the Manage email apps settings link.
In the Manage settings for email apps display pane, do one of the following.
- To disable Exchange ActiveSync, for the Mobile (Exchange ActiveSync) option, when the button is Enabled, set to Disabled.
- To enable Exchange ActiveSync, for the Mobile (Exchange ActiveSync) option, when the button is Disabled, set to Enabled.
Click Save to save your change. A message Email app settings updated successfully is displayed. Click Close to exit.

Use the Classic EAC to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync

In the Classic EAC, navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes.
In the list of user mailboxes, click the mailbox that you want to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync for, and then click Edit .
On the mailbox properties page, click Mailbox Features.
Under Mobile Devices, do one of the following:
- To disable Exchange ActiveSync click Disable Exchange ActiveSync.
  
  A warning appears asking if you're sure you want to disable Exchange ActiveSync. Click Yes.
- To enable Exchange ActiveSync, click Enable Exchange ActiveSync.
Click Save to save your change.

Note

You can enable and disable Exchange ActiveSync for multiple user mailboxes by using the EAC bulk edit feature. For more information about how to do this, see the "Bulk edit user mailboxes" section in Manage user mailboxes.

How do you know it worked?

To verify that you've successfully enabled or disabled Exchange ActiveSync for a user mailbox, do one of the following:

In the EAC, navigate to Recipients > Mailboxes, click the mailbox, and then click Edit .
On the mailbox properties page, click Mailbox Features.
Under Mobile Devices, verify whether Exchange ActiveSync is enabled or disabled.

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to enable or disable Exchange ActiveSync

This example disables Exchange ActiveSync for the mailbox of Yan Li.

Set-CASMailbox -Identity "Yan Li" -ActiveSyncEnabled $false

This example enables Exchange ActiveSync for the mailbox of Elly Nkya.

Set-CASMailbox -Identity "Elly Nkya" -ActiveSyncEnabled $true

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-CASMailbox.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you've successfully enabled or disabled Exchange ActiveSync for a user mailbox using PowerShell, do one of the following:

Run the following command in Exchange Online PowerShell.
```
Get-CASMailbox -Identity <MailboxIdentity>
```
If Exchange ActiveSync is enabled, the value for the ActiveSyncEnabled property is True. If Exchange ActiveSync is disabled, the value is False.