Creating a shared mailbox in Microsoft 365 to show in Origami calendar

Admin Tips and Shortcuts
1

A shared mailbox allows multiple users to read and send email from a common address (such as support@company.com or sales@company.com) without requiring a separate paid Microsoft 365 license.

To create one, you need Global Administrator or Exchange Administrator permissions in your tenant.

1. Access the Microsoft 365 Admin Center:

  1. Open a browser and navigate to admin.microsoft.com.
  2. Sign in with your admin account credentials.

2. Navigate to the Shared Mailboxes section:

  1. In the left navigation menu, expand Teams & groups.
  2. Select Shared mailboxes.

(If you don’t see this in the left menu, click Show all to expand the full administrative options.)

3. Create the shared mailbox:

  1. Select + Add a shared mailbox at the top of the panel.
  2. In the Add a shared mailbox pane that opens on the right:
    • Name: Enter a friendly display name (e.g., Customer Support).
    • Email: Enter the desired email prefix and select your domain from the drop-down menu (e.g., support@yourdomain.com).
  3. Click Save changes at the bottom.

4. Assign members and permissions:Changes may take up to 60 minutes to propagate across Outlook clients.

  1. Once saved, click Add members to this mailbox directly from the confirmation window (or select the newly created mailbox from the list and select Edit under Members).
  2. Click + Add members.
  3. Select the checkboxes next to the users who should have access to this mailbox.
  4. Click Add to confirm, then close the pane.

5. Configure Send As vs. Send on Behalf permissions:Optional adjustment via Exchange Admin Center.

By default, added members receive both Read and Manage and Send As permissions. If you want emails sent from the shared mailbox to state “sent by User on behalf of Mailbox”:

  1. Navigate to the Exchange Admin Center (admin.exchange.microsoft.com).
  2. Go to Recipients > Mailboxes and click on your shared mailbox.
  3. Select the Delegation tab to customize specific Send as versus Send on behalf rights for individual users.

Key Usage Guidelines

  • Licensing: Shared mailboxes do not require a license if the storage remains under 50 GB. If storage exceeds 50 GB or if you enable In-Place Archiving, an Exchange Online Plan 2 or Microsoft 365 E3/E5 license must be assigned.

  • Outlook Access: For users with assigned permissions, the shared mailbox will automatically appear in their desktop Outlook application under their primary account folders after restarting Outlook (via automapping).