A shared mailbox is an email account that multiple people can access from their own Outlook profiles
When you add a shared mailbox to Outlook 365, you are not creating a new account. Instead, you are giving your Outlook profile permission to open and send email from an inbox that belongs to your organization — usually managed by your IT department or administrator. The shared mailbox itself lives on your company's Microsoft 365 server. Your administrator grants you access, and then you add it to your Outlook client so you can read and reply to messages without switching accounts.
The process differs slightly depending on whether you use Outlook on the web, Outlook on your desktop, or Outlook on your phone. All three routes start the same way: your administrator must first give you permission to that mailbox. You cannot add a shared mailbox on your own.
Key Takeaways
- Your administrator must grant you access to the shared mailbox before you can add it to Outlook — you cannot do this step yourself.
- In Outlook on the web, you add a shared mailbox by going to Settings, then Mail, then Shared Mailboxes, and selecting the mailbox from the list your administrator has made available.
- In Outlook desktop, you add it through File, then Account Settings, then Account Settings again, then New, and selecting "Shared Mailbox" as the account type.
- Once added, you can send email from the shared mailbox by selecting it in the "From" field when you compose a message.
- If the shared mailbox does not appear in your list, ask your administrator to confirm they have granted you access and to check that your permissions have synced across Microsoft 365 servers.
How to add a shared mailbox in Outlook on the web
Open Outlook in your web browser and sign in with your own account. In the top right corner, click the gear icon to open Settings. From the menu that appears, select "View all Outlook settings."
In the left sidebar, click "Mail," then scroll down and click "Shared mailboxes." You will see a list of all shared mailboxes your administrator has given you access to. Click the mailbox you want to add. A panel will open on the right side showing the mailbox details. Click "Add to my mailboxes" at the bottom of that panel.
The shared mailbox will now appear in your folder list on the left side of Outlook, below your own inbox. You can click on it to open it and read messages. The mailbox will stay in your list until you remove it.
How to add a shared mailbox in Outlook desktop
Open Outlook on your computer. Click "File" in the top left corner, then click "Account Settings," then click "Account Settings" again from the dropdown menu. A window will open showing your current email accounts.
Click the "New" button. A dialog box will ask what type of account you want to add. Select "Shared Mailbox" from the list. Enter the email address of the shared mailbox and click "Next." Outlook will attempt to connect to the mailbox using your existing Microsoft 365 credentials. If your administrator has set up the permissions correctly, Outlook will confirm the connection and add the mailbox to your account.
Click "Finish" to close the dialog. The shared mailbox will now appear in your folder list in Outlook. You may need to restart Outlook for it to show up. Once it does, you can click on it to open it and read messages.
How to send email from a shared mailbox
When you compose a new message in Outlook, look at the "From" field at the top of the compose window. By default, it shows your own email address. Click on the "From" field to open a dropdown menu showing all the email addresses you can send from — your own account plus any shared mailboxes you have added.
Select the shared mailbox from the list. The "From" field will now show the shared mailbox address. When you send the message, it will appear to come from the shared mailbox, not from your personal account. Recipients will see the shared mailbox address as the sender.
If you do not see the shared mailbox in the "From" dropdown, it may not have synced yet. Wait a few minutes and try again. If it still does not appear, contact your administrator to confirm your permissions are active.
What to do if the shared mailbox does not appear in your list
If you have asked your administrator to give you access but the shared mailbox is not showing up in Outlook, the most common reason is that the permissions have not synced across Microsoft 365 yet. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Sign out of Outlook completely, close the process, wait 15 minutes, and then sign back in.
If the mailbox still does not appear, ask your administrator to verify that they have actually granted you access. They should check the shared mailbox settings in the Microsoft 365 admin center and confirm your name is listed as a user with permission. Sometimes an administrator thinks they have added you but the action did not complete.
If your administrator confirms they have given you access and it has been more than a few hours, ask them to remove your access and add it again. This forces the permissions to resync. Then wait another 15 minutes and try adding the mailbox to Outlook again.
Security considerations when using a shared mailbox
A shared mailbox is a shared responsibility. Because multiple people can access it, you cannot assume that only you have read a particular message or that only you sent a reply. When you send an email from a shared mailbox, your name does not appear as the sender — the mailbox address does. This means recipients cannot tell who on your team actually wrote the message.
If your organization uses audit logging, your administrator can see which user account opened the shared mailbox and when. However, if someone with access to the shared mailbox forwards a message or deletes it, that action is logged to their account, not to the mailbox itself. This is why shared mailboxes work best for team inboxes where everyone is trusted and the work is transparent.
Do not share your personal Outlook password with anyone to give them access to a shared mailbox. The correct way is always through your administrator, who grants access in the Microsoft 365 admin center. This keeps a record of who has access and makes it possible to remove access when someone leaves the team.
How to remove a shared mailbox from Outlook
If you no longer need access to a shared mailbox, you can remove it from your Outlook profile. In Outlook on the web, go to Settings, then Mail, then Shared Mailboxes, find the mailbox you want to remove, and click "Remove from my mailboxes."
In Outlook desktop, click File, then Account Settings, then Account Settings again. Find the shared mailbox in the list, click on it, then click "Remove." Click "Yes" to confirm. Restart Outlook for the change to take effect.
Removing the mailbox from your Outlook profile does not delete the mailbox or remove your access to it on the server. It only removes it from your local Outlook client. If you want to completely lose access to the shared mailbox, ask your administrator to remove your permissions in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add a shared mailbox to Outlook on my phone?
Yes, but the process is different from desktop and web. On iPhone, open Outlook, tap the menu icon, go to Settings, tap your account, then tap "Add Shared Mailbox." On Android, tap the menu icon, go to Settings, tap your account, then tap "Add Shared Mailbox." Your administrator must have already granted you access.
What happens if my administrator removes my access to a shared mailbox?
The mailbox will stop appearing in your Outlook folder list within a few hours. If you try to open it, you will see an error message. You should manually remove it from your Outlook profile to avoid confusion. The mailbox itself and all its messages remain on your organization's server.
Can I change the password for a shared mailbox?
No. A shared mailbox does not have a password. It is accessed through your own Microsoft 365 account credentials. Only your administrator can manage the shared mailbox settings, including who has access to it. If you think someone should no longer have access, contact your administrator.
Will people know it is me sending from the shared mailbox?
Not from the email address alone. The message will show the shared mailbox address as the sender, not your personal email. However, your administrator can see in the audit log that your account was used to send the message. If you want recipients to know who wrote the message, you should sign your name in the email body.
What if I accidentally delete a message from the shared mailbox?
The message goes to the Deleted Items folder of the shared mailbox, not your personal Deleted Items. You or anyone else with access to the shared mailbox can restore it from there within 30 days. After 30 days, Microsoft 365 permanently deletes it. If you need to recover a message older than 30 days, contact your administrator — they may be able to restore it from a backup.