How to Add and Use a Shared Mailbox in Outlook and Microsoft 365

Coletta Teske is a Lifewire writer focusing on consumer electronics. She has 30 years' experience writing for Adobe, Boeing, Microsoft, and many others.

• Western Governors University

Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions.

What to Know

• You can create one in the MS 365 admin center under Groups >Shared mailboxes. Select Add a mailbox and follow steps from there.
• Everyone assigned to a Microsoft Office/365 shared mailbox has access to everything in it: incoming emails, replies, forwards, etc.
• Office 365 users need a Microsoft Exchange Online subscription to access shared mail.

This article explains how to add users to a shared Outlook mailbox, and how to used shared mailboxes in Outlook, on the web, and from a mobile app. These instructions apply to Office 365 for Windows and macOS; Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010; Outlook for iOS and Android; and Outlook on the web.

How to Create a Shared Mailbox in Office 365

You can create as many shared mailboxes as you need, but each user you assign to the mailbox must have a Microsoft 365 subscription. To set up a shared mailbox:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center using your Microsoft 365 global admin account or Exchange admin account credentials.

Select Groups >Shared mailboxes in the navigation pane.

On the Add a mailbox page, type a name for the shared mailbox in the Name field.

A mailbox alias is automatically created in the Email field, but you can change the alias if you like. When you've named the shared mailbox, select Add.

How to Save Sent Email to the Shared Mailbox

When a user sends an email message from the shared mailbox, a copy of that message is saved to that user's Sent Items folder, not to the shared mailbox. If you want to save these emails to the shared mailbox, you must edit the shared mailbox settings.

To save sent email messages to the shared mailbox, complete the following steps:

1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and select Groups >Shared mailboxes in the navigation pane.

Select Edit next to Sent items.

How to Use the Shared Mailbox in Outlook 2016, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2010

When you set up the shared mailbox, other users don’t have to do anything to display the shared mailbox in the desktop version of Outlook. The shared mailbox appears automatically in the Outlook sidebar.

To send an email from the shared mailbox, complete the following steps:

1. Select the Home tab at the top of Outlook.

Select New Email to create a new message.

How to Access the Shared Mailbox in Outlook on the Web

If you want to work with the shared mailbox in a web browser, you must manually add the mailbox. To add the shared mailbox to Outlook on the web, complete the following steps:

1. Sign in to your Microsoft 365 account, and then select the Outlook app.

How to Add Shared Mailboxes to the Outlook Mobile App

If you want to access a shared mailbox from your smartphone or tablet, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Outlook app for iOS or Android and sign in to your account.

If you want to remove a shared mailbox from the Outlook app, go to Settings > Accounts, then tap the shared mailbox and choose Delete Account.

What Is a Shared Mailbox in Office 365?

Every person assigned to an Office 365 shared mailbox has complete access to all the messages in it. Member users can read incoming emails, reply to messages, forward messages, and see how others have responded.

When a team member responds to an email message from the shared mailbox, the email is sent from the shared address rather than the individual's email address, so everyone's information stays confidential. That said, shared mailboxes typically don't have user names or passwords, creating some security concerns.

Why Use a Shared Mailbox?

Shared mailboxes are ideal for customer service or marketing departments that want incoming email messages to be answered by the next available team member. Shared mailboxes also come with a shared contact list and a shared calendar, so members of the group can create appointments in a central location that all members can see.

There are a few ways to clean up (or clean out) your mailbox in Outlook. To completely clear a mailbox, right-click the folder and select Empty Folder > Delete All. To get rid of only specific messages, select the checkbox next to each one you want to remove and then select Move To > Deleted Items.

To check on the size of your Outlook mailboxes and folders, right-click the mailbox you want to look over and then select Data File Properties > Folder Size. Or find the largest messages in your mailbox by selecting Search Current Mailbox > Search > Options > Search Tools > Advanced Find.