Office 365 Shared Mailbox Not Showing in Outlook – How to Fix

Updated On - April 12, 2023 by Henry Bray | Reading Time: 5 minutes

In Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) and Exchange Online, shared mailboxes are common mailboxes that various users within an organization may use. If a user has access to the Shared Mailbox, they will also be able to use the shared mailbox’s generic address (e.g., support@abc.com or info@abc.com) to send and receive emails. It also includes a shared calendar for planning and coordinating work-related events and activities. A shared mailbox, does not require a username and password. You need the Send As, Send On behalf of, or Full Access permissions the administrator grants to access a shared mailbox. If you have the appropriate roles and permissions but still have an Office 365 shared mailbox not showing in Outlook client, you can do so by using one of the solutions or workarounds detailed in this article.

What is a Shared Mailbox

A shared mailbox in Office 365 is a mailbox that multiple users can use to send and receive email messages. It is a feature that enables collaboration among team members, allowing them to share information, manage projects, and respond to customer inquiries efficiently.

In a shared mailbox, users can read and reply to messages, and they can also share access to the mailbox’s contacts, calendar, and tasks. The mailbox is not associated with a single user, but rather, it is a resource that is accessible to multiple users.

To set up a shared mailbox in Office 365, an administrator can create the mailbox in the Microsoft 365 admin center and assign the appropriate permissions to users who need access to it. Users can then access the shared mailbox through Outlook, Outlook Web App (OWA), or a mobile device, depending on their preferred method of communication.

Shared mailboxes are often used for team-based projects, customer support, and other collaborative work. They offer several benefits, including streamlined communication, improved productivity, and better organization of messages and other information.

Importance of shared mailboxes

Shared mailboxes are an essential feature of modern workplace communication, particularly in collaborative and team-based environments. They allow multiple users to access a single email account, which can help streamline communication and improve productivity. Shared mailboxes can be used for various purposes, including customer support, project management, and group communication.

Why Office 365 shared mailbox is not showing

• After migrating on-premises mailboxes to Office 365, you may find that the shared mailbox you have been given access to is no longer showing in Outlook.
• Sometimes you may encounter the following error.

It cannot display the folder. Microsoft Outlook cannot access the specified folder location. 
The operation failed. An object cannot be found.

• The problem could be related to your current permission settings. If the administrator provides permission using Dialog Access, the user will only have access to the account’s default folders (including inbox, calendar, contacts, tasks, and notes) and can send and receive emails on behalf of the account. But they still need to add the shared mailbox to their Outlook.

How to Fix the Office 365 share mailbox not showing in Outlook

Please refer to the following remedies and workarounds for Office 365 shared mailboxes not showing in Outlook.

Check and Generate Logs to Fix the Error

If you’re having trouble opening the Shared Mailbox in Outlook, you can build a log and examine it to determine what’s wrong.

• To do this, launch Outlook and select File > Options > Advanced.
• Now under the Advanced tab, check the box adjacent to Enable troubleshooting logging (requires restart Outlook) option and click OK. 

• Close Outlook and open it again.
• Now find the log file in the %localappdata%/Temp folder or C:/Users/UserName/AppData/Temp folder.

To address the issue and gain access to the Shared Mailbox folder, check the logs and apply the appropriate fixes (s).

Disable Auto-Mapping

Turn off Office 365’s auto-discovery and mapping services; if a user has full access or rights to view the Shared Mailboxes, the mailboxes will be automatically mapped to that user. The Shared Mailbox is loaded automatically when the user logs into the online app or launches Outlook.

If this doesn’t work, you may need to explicitly disable the auto-mapping option via the command-line interface so the user may regain access to the Shared Mailbox.

Note: This solution needs logging into Office 365 as/with a Global Administrator account, which limits its applicability to administrators.

The procedure entails the following actions:

• To save user credentials, open PowerShell as an admin and type in the following command.

$Credential = Get-Credential

• Enter Office 365 credentials and click the OK button.
• You should run the following command to connect to Office 365 and launch a new PowerShell session.

$ExchangeSession = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri “https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid” -Credential $credential -Authentication “Basic” –AllowRedirection

• The next step is to launch an Exchange Online meeting.

Import-PSSession $ExchangeSession

• Once the session has begun, you should terminate the user’s access to the shared mailbox. In the below command, I am removing the permissions of support@regainsoftware.com to Imran@microsoft.com.

RemoveIdentity support@regainsoftware.com -user Imran@microsoft,com AccessRights – FullAccess

• After that, use the following command to reassign full access rights to the shared mailbox and turn off auto-mapping.

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity support@regainsoftware.com -User Imran@microsoft.com -AccessRights FullAccess -AutoMapping:$false

• Adding the Shared Mailbox to the Outlook account will create a new OST file, which you may now use. The previous one will be left behind and unreachable.
• Repeat the preceding procedures to grant access to the Shared Mailbox for other users.

Add Shared Mailbox Manually

Here’s how to manually set up a shared mailbox:

• Open Outlook and navigate to the Account Settings submenu under the File menu.
• Double-click on the email tab to open the settings.
• Select More Settings.
• Go to the Advanced tab, and then click and enable the Download shared folders option.
• Click Add… and provide the name for the shared mailbox.

• To proceed, select OK, then Apply, and finally, OK.

To see if the shared mailbox is now accessible, you need to restart Outlook.

Recreate Profile

It’s conceivable that you can’t access the Group Email because of a problem with your email profile. If this happens, you can set up your email account and profile again. Your user account could be assigned to the Shared Mailbox via the Autodiscover service. The procedure entails the following actions:

• Exit Outlook and launch the Control Panel.
• Locate the “Mail” menu item and click it.
• Following, click on the Show profile option and click Add. 
• Provide a name for your new profile, and then click OK. 

• In the following wizard, enter your Office 365 credentials.
• After making the profile, close the Control Panel and launch Outlook.
• Select the profile created earlier and click OK.
• This will launch Outlook with your Office 365 profile.
• Now your Office 365 Shared Mailbox will be visible to you.

If you’re still having trouble adding the Shared Mailbox to your Outlook account after trying this, you should get in touch with the administrator.

Limitations of the Manual Methods

Simple manual solutions exist, but not everyone is capable of using them. However, there are also some restrictions to these approaches. The following sections detail these restrictions.

• There is always a high danger of data theft from cloud storage due to the nature of cloud computing itself.
• There is no assurance that these strategies will always be successful. However, there are situations in which they could fail to function.
• Not everyone can take advantage of them. Some people may find them difficult to use.

Using these steps, you should be able to access the contents of your shared mailbox within Outlook. Once your shared mailbox has been made visible in Outlook, you can send and receive emails from it. If you are still looking for the shared mailbox, though, it’s conceivable that the migration of the shared mailbox failed. If that’s the case, you need a high-quality Office 365 migrator tool such as Regain Office 365 to PST converter tool that doesn’t have any bugs and swiftly moves all your data.

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The tool is recommended by several Microsoft MVPs and Office 365 administrators. Also, it offers a convenient GUI, which makes it easy to use even for newbies.

Conclusion

Office 365 shared mailbox keeps several valuable data, and its access to every user is a must. However, due to some issues, your office 365 shared mailbox is not showing in Outlook. This article has defined almost every approach you can use to get out of this trouble. If you need to migrate your Office 365 shared mailbox to Outlook PST format, try out the Regain Office 365 Backup tool.