How to add another person’s mailbox to Outlook 2007

If you regularly need to access another person’s Exchange mailbox you can do so in Outlook quite easily by going to the File menu | Open | Other User’s Folder… However, this becomes quite tiresome because it does not show in the list of Mail Folders in Outlook.

Adding Mailbox to Outlook 2007

If you would like for the mailbox to show up in the Mail Folder list then do the following.

1. Open Outlook 2007
2. Open Tools menu | Account Settings…| Data Files
3. Select your Exchange mailbox.
4. Click the Settings… button.
5. Click the Advanced tab.
6. Click the Add… button
7. Type in the name of the mailbox in the textbox
8. Click OK to close out open windows and that should do it.

Owner Permissions

The above should work, but the owner of the mailbox may not have granted you the rights to the mailbox. To grant you permissions the owner of the mailbox just need to:

1. Open Outlook 2007
2. Right-click on the mailbox you need access to.
3. Select the Properties for “<name of mailbox here>”
4. Click the Permissions tab.
5. Click the Add… button
6. Locate your user in the directory add them. Change the permissions as desired.
7. Click OK to close out open windows and that should do it.

NOTE: The permissions may need to be set on each folder including Deleted Items or any folders the owner has created.

Replying or Sending on Behalf of the owner

In order for you to reply to any messages that are received in this mailbox or compose new emails from this mailbox you need to be added as a delegate for that person. Please note, if you create a new message or click the reply button in Outlook the Message window will act as you would normally see. However, when you actually click send the Exchange server will send back a message saying you don’t have the rights. Specifically, it will say something like

“You are not allowed to send this message because you are trying to send on behalf of another sender without permission to do so. Please verify that you are sending on behalf of the correct sender, or ask your system administrator to help you get the required permissions.”

To fix this, the owner needs to add you as a delegate. To do that, the owner needs to:

1. Open Outlook 2007
2. Go to Tools menu | Options… | Delegates tab
3. Click the Add… button
4. Find you in the list.
5. The owner will now be presented with a bunch of options. The default settings are to allow access to the Calendar. They can leave it, or select the appropriate level of access such as None (if you don’t need access to the calendar) for the Calendar. In order to get access to the mailbox (Inbox), they need to change the Inbox drop down list to Editor (can read, create, and modify items).
6. Click OK buttons.

More Info

For more instructions and background info on this topic, just type additional mailbox into the help box in Outlook 2007. Open the one called Manage another person's mail and calendar items. The help document is quite good and cover everything in depth.