Exchange 2013 provides the ability to set up shared mailboxes. How can rules (e.g. for sorting inbound mail automatically) be managed for these shared mailboxes? With earlier versions of Exchange, it was possible to log in to the shared mailbox with Outlook, and set up the rules there. The new Exchange 2013 shared mailboxes cannot be logged into. Does this mean that rules cannot be defined for shared mailboxes anymore?

from technet: "Shared mailboxes are a type of user mailbox that dont have their own user name and password, so users cant log into it them directly."

/Mattias

Even when you are not able to login directly, you can add the shared mailbox as a secondary mailbox with your mailbox when assigning 'Full Access'  permission on the shared mailbox on your name.(Eg. Add-MailboxPermission -Identity "Terry Adams" -User KevinKelly -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All ).

Once you have got full access permission, outlook will display the shared mailbox automatically as a secondary mailbox and can set what ever rules as you would like

The shared mailbox will show up automatically in Outlook once I have added my account as a delegate. However, when I attempt to create a rule for the shared inbox that moves the mail to a sub-folder (still within the shared mailbox), I get a popup message saying that the "object could not be found". I do not get the error message if I select a sub-folder of my own personal account, but that is not what I want to do. I am using Outlook 2010.

Hi

If you have the FullAccess right to the mailbox you can open it in OWA and create rules there - well at least you should be able to do it this way but I haven't tried with 2013 yet.

Cheers, Steve

• Edited by steve siyavayaMicrosoft community contributor Monday, January 07, 2013 5:14 PM
• Proposed as answer by Sharon.ShenMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Tuesday, January 08, 2013 9:32 AM
• Marked as answer by Simon_WuMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Thursday, January 31, 2013 1:54 AM

Hope you have used the switch  -InheritanceType All too. If yes, try to re-add the permission after removing the permission already added. Sometimes, it may be occurring because of some outlook related issues (try in a new profile too, or allow some time to replicate the changes). The error "object could not found" is something

Thanks Steve,

I do have full permissions set, but I understand I cannot log in to OWA since the Shared Mailbox has neither a user name nor a password associated with it (new Exchange 2013 shared mailbox type).

Regards, Mattias

If you have full access from your account to the mailbox then you log into OWA as yourself and open the shared mailbox by clicking on your name in the top right.

I could log on to OWA, and opening the shared mailbox from within OWA was also successful. However, when I click on "Create rule", all I get is a popup windows that takes forever to load, then finally displaying an error message saying that the "message does not exist" (in German).

All other OWA functions seem to be working correctly. Anyone having successfully created rules for a shared mailbox on Exchange 2013?

I strongly, believe that this is a matter of replication and both owa nd outlook will work perfectly if you can allocate some time for replication to happen

Hi,there,

The rule setting should be same as in Exchange 2010,you can configure it via outlook or OWA if you have full access permission. I also believe it should be something related to Repliation,would you please check the event log to see if the AD and Exchange replication has completed.

In some cases, replication can take longer depending on how many AD sites and Exchange servers in the environment:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/148381

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/158989

Hope these useful!

Regards,

Hi

If you have the FullAccess right to the mailbox you can open it in OWA and create rules there - well at least you should be able to do it this way but I haven't tried with 2013 yet.

Cheers, Steve

What is the point in you commenting if you have never used the product? Stop reposting this as you dont know what youre talking about!

This does not work in Outlook 2013. If you read the issue the person is trying to set a rule for mail personally addressed to them to go into a subfolder in a shared mailbox. Your suggestion does not work and results in the message 'object can not be found'. Why comment if you dont know what your talking about?

Sharon, your suggestion does not work. Outlook 2013 is a completely different beast to the previous versions. Have any of you actually used this product?

Mattias,

Did you actually manage to resolve this issue as all I can see on here is people making suggestions on a product they obviously dont have a clue about! I am trying to resolve this issue and have done a lot of research into this all day today but have still not found an answer. OWA doesnt show additional mailboxes and you cannot create the rule from Outlook as it states 'object could not be found'. Any help would be gratefully appreciate as opposed to the dross comments this thread has so far offered.

Thanks

Neo

Forgive me if my comment isn't what you were needing, but I have full rights to the shared mailboxes and have been able to open the them through owa and create rules.  I'm using Outlook 2013

To open the mailbox in owa, you login as yourself, click on your name in the upper right hand corner and select open another mailbox and type in the email address to your shared mailbox.  Once it is open click on the settings gear and select options this is where you can manage the mailbox.  To create rules click on Organize Mail.   

To get our shared mailboxes to work, we had to create a user account in AD and then disable it, create the shared mailbox and assign full access and sent as access for each user. It is also possible to open and manage the mailbox through owa.

To open the mailbox in owa, you login as yourself, click on your name in the upper right hand corner and select open another mailbox and type in the email address to your shared mailbox.  Once it is open click on the settings gear and select options this is where you can manage the mailbox.  To create rules click on Organize Mail.   

as I said in my reply below, I don't know if this is the information you are looking for or not, so forgive me if this is something you already know.

I'm struggling to get this to work as well.

I'm able to open the shared mailbox within OWA/Portal, and I'm able to open the rules, but 2 issues:

1.  The rule I need to edit says "you must edit this rule in the full version of Outlook"

2. When I try to create a new rule, the very option I need "Reply with a message" isn't available.  It doesn't even show up as an option.

The overall ask here is:

How do you edit/create mailbox rules for a shared mailbox that includes ALL OF THE OPTIONS available for mailbox rules.

One option you might try, if you have the admin rights to do it, change the mailbox back to a regular mailbox.  Then set a password on the account in AD.  Log in to widows with the account and set up email as though it was a regular user.

Then once you are done setting up all your rules that you want, go back to Exchange and change the account back to a shared account.

One concern I have about a comment you made is that you are getting a message that you must edit the rule with full version.  Some rules will only execute from the client.  So if you are creating a rule that would only execute from the client, not on the server, then it may never actually run.  And could be why you are getting the message you mention.

Hi Mattias,

I resolved this by having the following.

1. Full access to the Shared Mailbox.

2. Adding the mailbox as a secondary email account (Through Control Panel, Mail, Email Accounts)

3. Once the mailbox is added as a secondary email account in the Manage Rules and Alerts there will be a drop down allowing you to pick the mailbox to set the rule on.

I believe in my environment we have profiles set to auto-discover instead of manually configured.

Hope this helps!

• Proposed as answer by DenNerdyGuy 13 hours 12 minutes ago
• Edited by DenNerdyGuy 13 hours 11 minutes ago