Add mailbox permissions

Last updated: October 31, 2024

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Overview

In UW Office 365 Exchange Online, you can give other users access to your personal mailbox (aka email account) or other mailboxes you own (e.g., Shared UW NetIDs with UW Office 365 accounts). You can also grant Exchange-enabled UW Groups access to your personal mailbox or other mailboxes you own. All members of an Exchange-enabled UW Group will have the mailbox permissions assigned to the UW Group.

Once a user/UW Group has access to another mailbox, depending on the permissions granted they can:

  • View, add, and remove the contents of the mailbox, and send email as the mailbox (Full Access & Send As)
  • View, add, and remove the contents of the mailbox (Full Access)
  • Send email as the mailbox (Send As)
  • Send email on behalf of the mailbox (Send on Behalf)

These permissions are granted and managed using the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT). Once permissions are granted, a supported Exchange Online client can be used to access another mailbox.

Adding multiple mailboxes to an email client is resource intensive and can cause unexpected issues. For this reason, we rely on Organization Exchange Support Groups (OESGs) to support Outlook configurations with multiple mailboxes. For users without an OESG, we recommend adding additional mailboxes in Outlook for the web.

Manage mailbox permissions using the PRT

Use the PRT to manage UW Exchange Online mailbox permissions for UW NetIDs you own

Mailbox permission types

Full Access & Send As

With these mailbox permissions, a user effectively has full control over the other mailbox and can read all of the email in the mailbox and send email as the mailbox. The recipient of an email sent by a user using Full Access & Send As permissions on a mailbox will not be able to tell the email was sent by any other account other than the mailbox itself.

Full Access

With these mailbox permissions, a user can read all of the email in the other mailbox. A user cannot, however, send email as the mailbox.

Send As

With these mailbox permissions, a user can send email as the other mailbox but cannot read any of the email in the mailbox. The recipient of an email sent by a user using Send As permissions on a mailbox will not be able to tell the email was sent by any other account other than the mailbox itself.

Send on Behalf

With these mailbox permissions, a user can send email on behalf of the other mailbox but cannot read any of the email in the mailbox. The recipient of an email sent by a user using Send on Behalf permissions on a mailbox will see that the email was sent by the account using Send on Behalf permissions on the other mailbox.

Access another mailbox

Once a user has been granted additional access to another mailbox, they can access that mailbox several ways using a supported Exchange Online client.

Outlook on the web – add to folder list

After you complete this procedure, the other mailbox that you have access to will display in your Outlook on the web folder list.

If you decide that you no longer want to see the other mailbox in Outlook on the web, right-click the folder and click “Remove shared folder“.

Outlook on the web – open in a separate browser tab

If you do not want to add the other mailbox to your folder list in Outlook on the web, you can open the other mailbox in a separate browser tab.

  • Log in to Outlook on the web using your personal UW NetID
  • In the upper right corner, click your profile picture
  • Click “Open another mailbox“
  • Type in the full UW email address of the other mailbox and click the mailbox when it is displayed, then click “Open“
  • The other mailbox is now open in another browser tab

Outlook for Windows

After you complete this procedure, the other mailbox that you have access to will be listed in your Outlook for Windows folder list.

  • In Outlook, click “File” then click on “Account Settings“, then click on “Account Settings…”
  • In Account Settings, click your current mailbox and click “Change“
  • On the next screen, click “More Settings…”
  • Click “Advanced” and then click “Add“
  • Type in the full UW email address of the other mailbox, then click “OK“
  • Click “Apply” then click “OK”
  • Finish by clicking “Next” and then click “Finish“

Send email from the other mailbox

  • Open Outlook and click “New E-mail“
  • If you don’t see the “From” field, click on the options tab and click on “From” in the ribbon to add the from field
  • Next to the From field, click on the “From” drop-down button and select “Other E-mail Address…”
  • Type in the other mailbox’s full UW email address and click “OK”
  • When sending future e-mails, the From box will be there automatically and the shared mailbox will automatically be in the drop-down list

Outlook for Mac

After you complete this procedure, the other mailbox that you have access to will be listed in your Outlook for Mac folder list.

  • In the menu bar, click “Tools“
  • Then click “Accounts…“
  • Then click “+“
  • Then click “Add an Account…“
  • Type in the full UW email address
  • Click “Continue“
  • Enter the UW NetID password if prompted
  • Click “Done“

Send email from the other mailbox

  • Click “New Mail“
  • In the From: field, click your account and then click the other mailbox from the dropdown list

Outlook for iOS & Android

After you complete this procedure, the other mailbox that you have access to will be listed in your Outlook for iOS or Android app.

FAQs

Q: When I add a UW Group to be provisioned with elevated access to a mailbox, why do I get the error: Invalid Outlook Access: b'{\r\n “valid”: “false”,\r\n “name”: “u_yourgroupname@uw.edu”\r\n}’

A: You are receiving this error because the UW Group you added is not Exchange-enabled. Learn how to Exchange-enable a UW Group. After you’ve Exchange-enabled the UW Group, wait 2 hours then refresh the PRT and you can add the UW Group to be provisioned with elevated access to a mailbox.

Help

Adding multiple mailboxes to an email client is resource intensive and can cause unexpected issues. For this reason, we rely on Organization Exchange Support Groups (OESGs) to support Outlook configurations with multiple mailboxes. For users without an OESG, we recommend adding additional mailboxes in Outlook for the web.