Enable-OrganizationCustomization: Windows PowerShell Error in Exchange Online

Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu

Topic Last Modified: 2011-11-23

As you use Windows PowerShell to configure and manage Exchange Online, you may encounter an error message that looks something like this:

This operation is not allowed for the organization with disabled customizations. To enable this operation, you need to execute Enable-OrganizationCustomization task first.

What causes this error?

In the Microsoft datacenters, certain objects are consolidated to save space. When you try to use Windows PowerShell to modify one of these objects for the first time, you may encounter the error message that tells you to run the Enable-OrganizationCustomization cmdlet.

Here are some examples of when you might see this:

Creating a new role group or creating a new management role assignment.
Creating a new role assignment policy or modifying a built-in role assignment policy.
Creating a new Outlook Web App mailbox policy or modifying a built-in Outlook Web App mailbox policy.
Creating a new sharing policy or modifying a built-in sharing policy.
Creating a new retention policy or modifying a built-in retention policy.

How do I resolve this error?

Run the following command:

Copy

Enable-OrganizationCustomization

Note You only need to run this command once. If you try to run it again, you'll get an error message that looks something like this:

This operation is not available in the current service offer.