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Can You Delete a Message Trace Report in Exchange Admin Center?

Bushra Parveen Oct 7, 2026 868 views

Question details

The user is looking for a way to manually delete an older message trace report from the Microsoft Exchange Admin Center.

Can You Delete a Message Trace Report in Exchange Admin Center?

Product: Microsoft Exchange Online
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: An administrator wants to clean up the message trace report history in the Exchange Admin Center.
Observed behavior: There is no manual delete option or button available to remove the message trace reports in the admin center.

Before you start

Please note that you must have administrative privileges in Microsoft 365 to access and view the message trace reports in the Exchange Admin Center.

Solution 1Recommended

Understand the Automatic Retention and Deletion Policy

Since manual deletion is not supported by Microsoft, administrators must rely on Exchange's automatic retention cycles to clear old reports.

Microsoft currently does not provide a manual delete option for message trace reports in the Exchange Admin Center. Instead, the system relies entirely on automated retention rules to manage and purge this data without requiring administrator intervention.

Access the Exchange Admin Center

Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center using your administrator credentials, then navigate to the Exchange Admin Center.

Navigate to Message Trace

Click on 'Mail flow' in the left-hand navigation pane and select 'Message trace' to view your current list of generated reports.

Review Active Reports

You will see your active reports listed here. Note that reports containing data older than 7 days will be automatically deleted by the system after exactly 10 days.

Understand the Automatic Retention and Deletion Policy

No Action Required: You do not need to take any manual action to clean up these logs. They will disappear automatically from your dashboard once their respective retention limit is reached.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long does Exchange keep message trace data?

Exchange Online retains summary message trace data for 90 days. However, specific custom message trace reports generated in the admin center are automatically deleted after 10 days.

Is there a PowerShell command to manually delete trace reports?

No, there is currently no Exchange Online PowerShell cmdlet available to manually delete message trace reports. The system handles all report purging automatically.

Can I cancel a pending message trace report?

Once a historical message trace report has been submitted and is pending or actively running, it cannot be canceled manually. You must wait for it to process and subsequently expire based on retention policies.

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