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A couple of tips for setting up Shared Mailboxes (updated)

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A shared mailbox is a great way to implement department mailboxes, shared calendars and lots of other things. On the web you'll find several detailed step-by-steps for setting up shared mailboxes:

Before you go through those steps you should make a note of a couple of things to be aware of:

  • You might want to start PowerShell using Run As Administrator
  • Do not leave out https in https://ps.outlook.com/powershell
  • If the Import-PSSession $Session fails you may need run Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted first to allow execution of scripts (reverse the instruction using the restricted parameter after you are done with all the scripting)

When done with the creation of the Shared Mailbox, creation of a Security Group, adding members to the group, and setting permissions (all described in the above listed step-by-step instructions) you can open the new shared mailbox in either Outlook Web App (OWA) or Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Outlook):

  • In OWA the shared mailbox can be opened by right-clicking your name in the Explorer windows and choosing Open Other User's Inbox - see this article for a How-To
  • In Outlook the shared mailbox can be opened by going to File > Account Settings > choose your Office 365 account > Change > More Settings > Advanced > Add (to the right of “Open these additional mailboxes” > mailbox alias

See also

  • "Understanding Shared Mailboxes" - link
  • "Open Another Mailbox" - link
  • "Userfriendly Shared Mailboxes in OWA in Office 365" - link
  • "Set Up a Shared Mailbox" - link

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 22, 2012
    This is exactly what we did 2 years ago when we migrated our on premise 2003 Exchange Server for all of our "Public" folders. We were able to condense some folders too during the cleanup. It worked great and is easy to maintain! Getting ready to migrate to Office 365 in the next 3 months. Ready for another fun ride!

  • Anonymous
    August 17, 2012
    In our current environment we have about 12 public folders. We are now migrating to office 365 and since public folders aren't there anymore we plan to 'mimic' the behaviour by using shared mailboxes. I have used the shared mailbox tool to create a shared mailbox, created a security group and set the permissions. This all works great, except for one thing: when adding the mailbox in Outlook 2010, it will show the inbox, concepts, sent items, calendar etc. However with about 12 folders it would be very nice to have only the inbox show. Does anyone know how to hide the other folders? I have found a reference in a Microsoft document (Migrate from public folders to office 365.docx) which says: "Note: Optionally, you can choose to share some or all of the shared mailbox folders (for example, the inbox folder) with selected users by assigning permissions on the specified folder. If you give full permissions on the mailbox per-folder permissions are not possible." Does this mean I have to set folder permissions per folder, and if so, how can I set these permissions? Or is there a better solution?

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2016
    Not that I'm counting but I just realized one of my blog posts actually is closing in on 100k views