Accessing a Shared Mailbox

Owned by Donald Birnbaum, created
Last updated: Oct 23, 2024 by emma.clifton
4 min read

The College of Engineering has migrated to Exchange Online, so all shared mailboxes should map automatically in Outlook. If the shared mailbox has not shown up automatically, please try the steps below.

New student worker email accounts are now shared mailboxes. The email address for these mailboxes will be netid-sw@tamu.edu

Please use the following steps to access a Shared Inbox that Technology Services - Engineering has provided you access to. Access must be granted before this procedure will succeed.

What is a Shared Inbox (Shared Mailbox)?

“A shared mailbox is a type of user mailbox that doesn't have its own username and password. As a result, users can't log into them directly. To access a shared mailbox, users must first be granted Send As or Full Access permissions to the mailbox. Once that's done, users sign in to their own mailboxes and then access the shared mailbox by adding it to their Outlook profile.” -Microsoft

Exchange Online

  1. Log into outlook.office.com with your netid@tamu.edu and password

  2. Right-click on Folders in the left side menu bar and Click Add shared folder...

  3. Type in the name or email address of the shared mailbox you need to add e.g sharedmailbox@tamu.edu

  4. Click on Search Directory if there are no results or multiple results.

  5. Select the shared mailbox you need to add.

  6. Click Add.

Outlook for Windows

Follow the steps below to access a Shared Inbox that Technology Services has provided you access to:

Old Outlook

  1. Open Outlook (these steps were created using Outlook 2019), and allow a few seconds for your email to finish opening

  2. If you have an account already added to Outlook, click File in the upper left hand corner and then click + Add Account under Account Information. If you don’t have an account added, skip to the next step.

  3. In the following window, enter the email address of the Shared Inbox that you have been granted access to e.g. sharedmailbox@tamu.edu

  4. A Microsoft login box should appear. Put in your netid@tamu.edu email address in to sign in.

  5. It will then allow you to put in your password

  6. It will prompt for Duo, accept the prompt

  7. You will get a prompt asking if you would like for your organization to manage this device. Click the No, sign in to this app only option

  8. Outlook will now load your new inbox on the left side panel where your email breaks down. You should see a collapsible mailbox like your personal mailbox.

 

Some versions of Outlook may require you to close and then reopen the application in order for the new mailbox to load.

New Outlook

  1. Open New Outlook.

  2. Right-click either netid@tamu.edu or Shared with me on the navigation pane.

  3. Select Add shared folder or mailbox.

     

  4. Enter the name or email address of the shared mailbox you have been granted access to.

     

  5. The shared mailbox will now appear under >Shared with me.

Outlook for Mac

  1. Open Outlook Preferences and go to Accounts

  2. If your account has already been added, open Delegation and Sharing

  3. Go to the Shared With Me tab and click the + button to add a shared mailbox

  4. Search for the shared mailbox by display name or email address, select your mailbox, then click Add

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