Add Rules to a Shared Mailbox in Office 365: Step By Step Guide

Shared mailboxes are one of the most-used tools in the Microsoft 365 suite. It enhances overall work collaboration and productivity by allowing multiple users to send and receive emails from a common email address. Additionally, it offers a great feature to add rules to a shared mailbox.

By setting up rules in shared mailboxes, you can automate repetitive tasks. Which can help you minimize your workload. Although creating and setting up rules in a Shared mailbox can be a complex task to perform. You can get into issues when these rules aren’t set up right.

They may even stop working altogether. To help you out, in this article, I am going to outline a step-by-step way on how to add rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365. 

Why Do Admins Add Rules to a Shared Mailbox in Office 365?

Adding rules to a shared mailbox allows admins to automate repetitive tasks. They can create these rules for various reasons, including filtering emails from specific people into a folder or excluding certain team members from emails altogether. This helps their team to become more efficient and productive. It also helps them by sorting emails in a shared mailbox so that no other emails get missed.

What are Some Common Shared Inbox Rules That Users Can Add?

Every rule that users create in Outlook 365 requires three basic things: 

1. A name for the rule. 
2. A specified condition. 
3. An action that this rule could perform based on the condition. 

There are many different conditions and actions that you can apply to one rule, You can add more specific rules that can have exceptions and conditions to make them as detailed as possible. 

Here are some of the common rules that users can set up in their shared mailbox and make it easier to manage: 

How to Add Rules to a Shared Mailbox for Automatic Replies?

You can configure your shared inbox to reply to emails automatically by opening the admin center and following the steps below: 

1. Go to automatic replies > Edit.
2. Turn on the toggle.
3. Select the option to send emails internally or externally. 

Write the reply you want to be automatically sent out, and then click save. 

Save Every Email That Was Sent Out

You can save every single email that was sent within your shared mailbox. To do this, follow the steps: 

1. Open the Settings option.
2. Find the sent items settings. 
3. Click on the edit option and then click on settings. 

Every email that is sent from the shared inbox is copied to the mailbox. 

Forward every email to another account automatically

You can set up a rule where emails are forwarded to the right inbox when they are received into the shared inbox. 

1. Open settings and click on the inbox rules. 
2. Click on the “+” symbol and then create a new rule. 
3. In the “When messages arrive” section, choose the “apply to all messages”. 
4. Under the “do the following rule“, click on the More option. 
5. Select between the forward, redirect, or send options. 
6. Finally, select the email address you want the messages to get forwarded to. 
7. Click on the save option. 

You should keep in mind that with this rule, the replies sent from forwarded addresses will go back to the shared inbox and not to the original sender. 

Limiting users from getting access to the shared inbox

If you don’t want your entire team to access the shared inbox, you can add this rule to your mailbox, which will prevent selected people from gaining access to all the emails in that particular mailbox. Follow the given steps to add this rule: 

1. Go to the active user section. 
2. Choose the team member you don’t want to have access. 
3. Select the block option
4. Save the changes made.

How to Troubleshoot the Rules That Do Not Work?

It is common for users to run into problems after they add rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365. 

There may be many different reasons why these rules will stop working. Some of the most common reasons include enough space in the mailbox, and a Corrupted POP or IMAP in the account. Let us look at some troubleshooting techniques to do so. 

1. You have limited space – There is a default storage quota of 256 KB. You can solve this issue by deleting rules that are not being used to save space. 
2. The rules aren’t enabled – Sometimes, after users have made the rule, they forget to enable it, and due to this, the rule does not work. To resolve this, click on the files option and then select the rules and alerts option. Find the rule that is not working and ensure that the toggle is on. The rule will now start working. 

What Should You Do if None of These Troubleshooting Methods Work?

If none of these troubleshooting methods work, then you should shift all your sensitive files and data to a new account and then add rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365. Doing this will ensure that all your issues are going to be resolved. 

One of the greatest tools available is the SysTools Office 365 to Office 365 Migration Tool, which is completely reliable. With the help of this tool, users can migrate mailbox contents, including emails, contacts, critical documents, and calendars, much more easily.

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The advantages of this tool are as follows: 

1. Migrate emails from one Office 365 tenant to another, along with documents and calendars.
2. The import CSV option is available to make a mapping. 
3. Account priority option to migrate entire mailboxes.
4. Transfers Office 365 subscriptions to another tenant. 
5. Delta Migration for new data of the source tenant is available. 
6. It has a data-based filter option. 

Steps to perform the migration: 

1. Install and run the software. 
2. Select Office 365 as the source and destination. 
3. Select items to migrate, such as emails, contacts, calendars, etc. 
4. You can choose date-based filtering and enable permissions to migrate documents. 
5. Click on the next button. 
6. Enter the source admin and application ID, and then validate.
7. Enter the destination admin and application ID, and then validate this. 
8. After you have validated all the information, click on the Start Migration button to start the process. 

Also read: What are the Office 365 Backup Best Practices? Main Pillars Explained!

Conclusion

Setting up rules for shared mailboxes can be a complicated process, especially if users don’t know what they’re doing. Rules can help users maximise their productivity and make their work simpler. After creating these rules, users can add rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365 for various purposes, such as automatic forwarding of emails, automatic replies to emails, and even sending every email that is sent out. 

In case you face any issues, you should shift your entire data to a new account using an automated tool that can help you make the entire process much easier and resolve all the issues that you are facing.