If you’ve ever encountered the issue of a shared mailbox showing as mail user instead of what it’s supposed to be, worry not – I’ve got your back!
So, picture this: I recently created a shared mailbox in a hybrid environment, but to my surprise, it popped up as a mail user in the Exchange Admin Center instead of the shiny shared mailbox I intended. After patiently waiting for a couple of syncs to fix the issue (which, spoiler alert, didn’t work), I decided to roll up my sleeves and find a solution. Lucky for you, I’m here to share the fix with you in this post.
Now, let’s talk about shared mailboxes. They’re like the cool collaborative cousins of user mailboxes, perfect for managing customer inquiries and project stuff. Shared mailboxes allow multiple people to access them, sporting a shared email address and a separate calendar for meetings. No passwords needed – just a little admin magic to grant access.
Now, to tackle the shared mailbox showing as mail user dilemma, here’s what you need to do:
- Firstly, check the recipienttypedetails of the shared mailbox on-premises.
- Launch Exchange Management Shell.
- Execute the command “Get-RemoteMailbox “Display Name”
- Ensure the recipient type details reflect a remote shared mailbox.
- Then, check the affected account’s recipient type details in Microsoft 365 using Exchange Online PowerShell.
- Use the command: Get-Recipient “Display Name” | fl recipientt*.
- If you spot the mailbox showing as a mail user in Exchange Online, here’s the fix.
Assign the Exchange Online license to the affected mailbox, turning the mail user object into a user mailbox in Microsoft 365. Yes, it’s a bit counterintuitive, but hang in there.
Note: Watch out for conflicts – resolve them in on-premises or in the cloud, and give it some time for replication.
Once the license is assigned, check the status in the cloud after a few minutes.
voila! It should show up as a user mailbox. Now, convert it to the shared mailbox using either the Exchange Admin Center or PowerShell.
- In the Exchange Admin Center, navigate to “Recipients” > “Mailboxes“
- Find the mailbox, click “Others,” and select “Convert to shared mailbox.”
- Alternatively, in PowerShell, execute the command: Set-mailbox “Enter the shared mailbox name” -Type Shared.
- And there you have it – shared mailbox success.
- You can now remove the Exchange Online license (save that money) and revel in the 50 GB quota for shared mailboxes. Just make sure to grant the necessary permissions, or users might bug you again.
These strategies guide you on resolving the shared mailbox showing as mail user issue.
Also read: How To schedule teams meeting from shared mailbox?
Looking to enhance your Exchange Online experience for increased productivity? Dive into the tips and tricks shared right here.
So, did I cover everything? Any lingering questions or thoughts? Drop a comment below – I’m all ears!
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How can you assign permissions to a shared remote mailbox, with Powershell?
Thanks for getting ahead.
Thank you for the question. You can use the below command.
Add-MailboxPermission -Identity “Shared Mailbox Name” -User “User Name” -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All -AutoMapping $false
I have a few dilemmas.
What will happen on the client side after the conversion?
Is there any special intervention needed or will only some status change automatically?
When you add a user mailbox you enter the user login details, which are no longer required for a shared mailbox.
Is it necessary to delete the account from Outlook before the conversion and add it later under “Additional options -> Open these additional mailboxes”?
Thank you for the question. If the user not added the mailbox before, then add the mailbox on outlook after the conversion. If they added before the conversion, then they can access the mailbox automatically after the mailbox appears ok.
I have some users that were furloughed in March 2020. We have local AD that we Sync with 365.
For a short while we kept the mailbox as a Shared. Then eventually after 6 months, we moved them to Disabled Users, and their account disappeared and license recovered.
Now some of those people are being rehired. I move them out of Disabled Users, Sync. Add license.
But they are created as MailUser under Contacts in Exchange instead of a Mailbox. I can’t change anything in Powershell since we sync (really push) and AD is master. Any ideas how to get the new mailbox to be created? Right now I have to DELETE the user in AD. Sync. Then create a new user, Sync, Assign License, etc.
Kindly try the below steps and see how it goes.
Go to “Active Directory Administrative Center“
Select “Global Search“
Search the affected user account
Click “Properties” on the right
Select “Extensions” on the left
Select “Attribute Editor“
Select “msExchMailboxGuid“
Select “Clear“
Once done, wait for this changes to sync.
After synced, remove Exchange online license and wait for 15 minutes and add back the license and wait for a few minutes to check.
Thank you for your response, this worked like a charm when we had a rehire that we couldn’t convert as Exchange on-premise saw them as a remote mailbox and Exchange Online converted them to a contact.