Shared mailboxes, calendars, and sending on behalf of someone else

Shared mailboxes and calendars are the plumbing of most offices, and also the thing people quietly struggle with for months without mentioning. Here is how each piece works.

Opening a shared mailbox

Once we grant you access, the mailbox appears automatically in Outlook on Windows — as a separate folder tree in the left pane, below your own mailbox. It can take up to an hour to show up the first time, and a restart of Outlook usually speeds that along.

In a browser: go to outlook.office.com, click your initials in the top right, choose Open another mailbox, and type the shared address. It opens in a new tab.

On your phone: the Outlook mobile app supports shared mailboxes — add it as a separate account within the app rather than trying to set it up as a new mail account on the phone itself.

If it never appears, see the shared mailbox section of Outlook won’t sync, keeps asking for a password, or a shared mailbox vanished.

Sending from a shared address

The important part: you must set the From address explicitly. Outlook defaults to your own address, and a reply from sarah@ to a client who wrote to info@ causes confusion.

1. Click New Email.
2. If you do not see a From button, go to the Options tab and click From.
3. Click From and choose the shared address. If it is not listed, choose Other Email Address and type it once — it is remembered afterwards.
4. Write and send as normal.

Where do sent messages go? By default, a copy lands in your own Sent Items rather than the shared mailbox’s, which means colleagues cannot see what you sent. We can change that setting so replies are saved to the shared mailbox instead — it is a small change on our side and almost always worth asking for.

There are two kinds of permission, and it is worth knowing which you have:

• Send As — the message appears to come from the shared address, with no mention of you.
• Send on Behalf — recipients see Sarah Lewis on behalf of Accounts.

Tell us which you need. For a general info@ address, Send As is usually what people want.

Sharing your calendar

1. In Outlook, click the calendar icon.
2. Right-click your calendar in the left pane and choose Sharing Permissions (or click Share Calendar on the ribbon).
3. Click Add, choose the person, and pick a permission level:
   • Can view when I’m busy — free/busy only, no detail. Good for the whole company.
   • Can view titles and locations — enough to schedule around you.
   • Can view all details — full contents of every appointment.
   • Can edit — they can create and change appointments.
4. Click Apply.

Think about the level before you pick. Can view all details means every private appointment title is readable. If you need someone to schedule for you but not read everything, mark individual items Private — the padlock on the ribbon — which hides details even from people with full access.

Setting up a delegate

A delegate is a step beyond sharing: they can manage meeting requests on your behalf.

1. File › Account Settings › Delegate Access.
2. Click Add and choose the person.
3. Set their level for each folder. Most assistants need Editor on Calendar and nothing else.
4. Decide whether meeting requests should go to them, to you, or to both — the option is on the same screen.
5. Click OK.

Giving delegate access to your Inbox is a bigger step than it sounds; it means someone can read all your mail. Grant it deliberately, and tell us when someone changes role so we can remove it.

Opening someone else’s calendar

1. In Calendar view, click Add Calendar › From Address Book.
2. Find the person and click OK.
3. Their calendar appears in the left pane under Shared Calendars. Tick the box to overlay it with yours.

If you get You do not have permission, they have not shared it with you — ask them, since we cannot grant access to someone’s personal calendar without their say-so.

Common problems

“I can see the shared mailbox but can’t send from it.” Read access and send permission are separate. Ask us to add Send As.

“My sent messages aren’t in the shared mailbox.” See above — ask us to change where copies are saved.

“A colleague left and their mailbox needs monitoring.” Contact us rather than sharing passwords. We can convert it to a shared mailbox or forward it appropriately, which is both safer and cheaper than keeping their licence active.

“The shared calendar shows the wrong time zone.” Check your own Outlook time zone first: File › Options › Calendar › Time zones.

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Need access set up or changed? Call 440-991-9980 or email support@iconiumnetworks.com. Tell us the mailbox, who needs access, and whether they need to send as it or just read it — that is everything we need to action it the same day.