MC1171845 – M365 Change Digest

One-line summary

Defender for Office 365 quarantine now lists messages by individual recipient, improving admin clarity; rollout starts early Jan 2026, no end-user changes.

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Details

Summary

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is enhancing quarantine for admins by listing messages by individual recipients, improving backend durability, and requiring message release per user. Rollout begins January 2026, completing by March. No changes affect end users. Admins should update practices and documentation accordingly.

Body (from Message Center)

Updated January 9, 2026: We have updated the timeline. Thank you for your patience.

We’re improving the quarantine experience in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to deliver greater clarity, visibility, and ease of use for administrators. These updates include backend enhancements for improved durability and consistency as well as experience updates to list messages in quarantine by individual recipients to simplify navigation and management.

When this will happen:

General Availability (Worldwide and GCC): We will begin rolling out in early January 2026 (previously early November 2025) and expect to complete by end of March 2026 (previously end of February).
General Availability (GCCH and DoD): We will begin rolling out in early January 2026 (previously early December 2025) and expect to complete by end of March 2026 (previously end of February).

How this affects your organization:

Who is affected: Administrators managing quarantined messages in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
What will happen:
- Quarantined messages will now be listed by individual recipient instead of grouped by multiple recipients.
- Backend enhancements will improve durability and consistency.
- Existing quarantine release cmdlets will all remain functional. Administrators should be cognizant that `ReleaseToAll` now applies to a single user as aggregation has been removed. Admins must release messages for each intended mailbox individually.
- No changes to end-user experience.

Screenshot 1 - Updated quarantine view showing individual recipients listed separately in the Recipient column:

user settings

Screenshot 2 - Existing quarantine view showing multiple recipients in the Recipient column:

user settings

What you can do to prepare:

Review your organization’s quarantine release practices.
Update any internal documentation to reflect the new recipient-level view.
Communicate this change to helpdesk or support teams as needed.
Learn more:
- Microsoft Defender for Office 365 overview | Microsoft Learn
- Manage quarantined messages and files as an admin | Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | Microsoft Learn

Compliance considerations:

No compliance considerations identified, review as appropriate for your organization.

Raw JSON (for debugging)

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