SOLVED: How To Add Add User To A Shared Mailbox Without Having It Automap to Outlook

To delegate a user rights to shared mailbox in Exchange it pretty easy:

  1. Surf to https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com
  2. Click MAILBOXES
  3. Click on the shared mailbox in question
  4. Click DELEGATION
  5. Click the EDIT button on READ AND MANAGE (FULL ACCESS)
  6. Add the user who wants to access

The problem with adding a delegate through the Exchange portal is the delegated mailbox will “automap” into the users Outlook. If you have a bunch of these delegated shared mailboxes in your Outlook it can get a bit ugly and can certainly slow things down.

Many people just want to be able to surf to the Outlook Web App (OWA) and switch user to see the shared mailbox.

How To Add A Delegate To a Shared Mailbox Without Mapping It To Outlook

Interestingly, delegating someone to have SEND AS or SEND ON BEHALF OF rights, does NOT cause the shared mailbox to map into their Outlook. Mapping only happens with READ AND MANAGE (FULL ACCESS).

If you want to add someone to a shared mailbox but do not want that mailbox to appear in their Outlook, you have to do it through PowerShell:

  1. Launch a PowerShell as an Administrator
  2. Enter Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement
  3. Enter Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement
  4. Enter Connect-ExchangeOnline
    • Enter your credentials when prompted (likely via Internet Explorer)
  5. Enter Add-MailboxPermission -Identity [SharedMailBox] -User [UserWhoWantsAccessToSharedMailBox] -AccessRights FullAccess -AutoMapping $false
    • Add-MailboxPermission -Identity tammy@urtech.ca -User ron@urtech.ca -AccessRights FullAccess -AutoMapping $false

NOTE: If you had previously added a delegate, you need to remove them before adding them again, which you can do with this command:

Remove-MailboxPermission -Identity tammy@urtech.ca -User ron@urtech.ca -AccessRights FullAccess


Published by
Ian Matthews

This website uses cookies.