Filtering reports: Users vs. non-User objects

Problem

You notice Report Filters are not removing Distribution Groups, MailContacts, or similar non-User entries from your report as expected.

Explanation

Report filters evaluate only User objects—that is, users you can find listed in the “Active Users” report. 

Other objects such as:

• Groups (including Distribution Groups, Dynamic Groups, Security Groups, and M365 Groups)
• MailContacts
• and related non-User recipient types 

are not affected by Report Filters. 
If a report includes non-User entries, these will not be filtered out using Report Filters.

Let’s try this

Let’s verify this with an example to demonstrate that when a Report Filter is created on Active Users and then applied to a target report (“Recipients by type”) that also displays Group entities, those Groups will not be filtered out by the user-based report filter.

Step 1: create a Report Filter in Active Users report

Create a Report Filter in the “Active Users” report, and set:

RecipientTypeDetails equal to ‘SharedMailbox’

Step 2: apply the Report Filter to another report

Now, let’s open the “Exchange > Recipients by type” report and apply the Report Filter we previously created.
As we can see, the report displays not only Shared Mailboxes, but also other recipient types (refer to the column RecipientTypeDetails), such as:

• Group Mailboxes
• Mail Universal Distribution Groups
• Mail Universal Security Groups
• Dynamic Distribution Groups
• Room Lists

Step 3: apply column filters

If we want to display only Shared Mailboxes, we need to take an additional step: use the multi-selector from the column filter on the RecipientTypeDetails column.

1. Click “Select all”.
2. Deselect the recipient types you want to exclude. 
   For our example we deselect: Group Mailboxes, Mail Universal Distribution Groups, Mail Universal Security Groups, Dynamic Distribution Groups, and Room Lists).

This ensures that only Shared Mailboxes are displayed in the report.

Solution

When filtering a report that includes a mix of Users and non-User objects, such as Distribution Groups and MailContacts, Report Filters alone are not sufficient. Report Filters are primarily designed for managing and filtering User objects, allowing you to target attributes like Department, Office, and other OnlineUser fields.

To achieve the desired filtering for mixed lists, you need to use both Report Filters and column filters:

1. Filter User attributes with Report Filters
   Use Report Filters to focus on users and apply criteria such as Department, Office, Country, Last Login Date, etc. This ensures your report only includes users who match your conditions.
2. Filter non-User objects with column filters
   To handle non-user entries (like Distribution Groups or MailContacts), use column filters on properties shared by all recipient types to further narrow down your results.

Example scenario:

Suppose you need to consult the “Mail traffic by user” report for all users in Italy who have a shared mailbox, but the target report also includes Distribution Groups.

Step 1

Create a Report Filter in the Active Users report using the following criteria:

Country equals to ‘Italy’ AND  RecipientTypeDetails equals to ‘SharedMailboxes’

Step 2

Navigate to “Mail traffic > Mail Traffic by user” report and apply the Report Filter previously created. 
We can observe that there are also Group objects entities:

 Let's add a column filter to exclude the identified non-User objects:

RecipientType is equal to ’MailUniversalDistributionGroup’

This ensures that only Shared Mailboxes are displayed in the report.