Shared Mailbox . Outlook 2016 for PC vs Office 365

[kyoobix]

Hello forum,

Maybe im doing it right, maybe im not. But this bothers the s*** out of me!

In my company we're using Office 365. I (admin) have created a shared mailbox from:
Admin -> Admin Centers -> Exchange -> Shared -> +

I have added a couple of users, some on Macs and some on PCs
To add a shared mailbox on a Macs you:

1. Click the Tools drop-down menu, and then select Accounts...
2. Select your personal account, and then click Advanced…
3. Select the Delegates tab, click Add in the “People I am a delegate for:” section.
4. Type the name of the shared mailbox, select it, and then click Add and OK .

The shared mailbox is then added, allowing you to send e-mails on behalf of the shared mailbox' e-mail adress.
This also means that you can easly close this shared mailbox, by removing the account from Delegates if you don't want to look at it.

This function is very useful, since we are creating shared mailboxes for every project. When a project is completet you can close the shared mailbox. The shared mailbox is still there, so if you need something, you can just re-open the mailbox.


On Outlook 2016 for PC it's a hole different story!

When I add a user to a shared mailbox who uses Outlook 2016 for PC the shared mailbox is automaticly added to the persons outlook.
But you can't by default send e-mail on behalf of the shared mailbox. The only way I have fixed this problem is by adding the shared mailbox under accounts settings and adding ones personal login credentials as login information.

This makes outlook create 3 folders called Conflicts, local failure and server failure. They contain nothing, but annoys the s*** out of me! Why would this happend if there is no failures?

Another issue is the fact that Outlook for PC automatically adds the shared mailbox on behalf of the user. This means that I as an admin have to add and remove people from the shared mailboxes to help the users unclutter their Outlook.

I seriously and for the love of God hope that I'm doing it wrong and that you can use a shared mailboxes the same way on a PC as on a Mac.

 

[Olivier]

Hello,

yes, you can do that on a PC.
To do this the Shared Mailbox has not to be added like a Delegate (AutoMapping function of Exchange) but like another mailbox (nearly).

1st : deactivate AutoMapping - for the users of this SM - you can do this via PowerShell
OR through the Web Admin -> Create a security group with the user(s) you want
Then ADD this security group to the SM and REMOVE explicit users from the lists (Total access + Send)

You may need to wait a bit for the modifications be taken into account

2nd Outlook :
To add the SM : Click the Add Button (like to add another address)
Enter only the SM main email address
Click Next
For the credentials, put those of the user (be carefull, the login will be set by default to SM address - you have to put the one of the user)

That's it !

Sorry if unprecise on some terms, I wrote it from memory....

 

[Trouble]

Thanks for sharing that information and you experience Olivier, much appreciated, and.....
Welcome to the forum.