Add Rules to a Shared Mailbox in Office 365: Setting Them Up Successfully

You can run into issues when these rules aren’t set up right, and they may even stop working altogether. In this article, we will help you learn how to add rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365. 

Why should you add rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365?

Adding rules to a shared mailbox allows teams to manage emails by creating automation that performs actions to happen automatically. 

Users 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 will help your team to become more efficient and their productivity will increase. It will also help by sorting emails in a shared mailbox so that no other emails get missed. 

How to Create a Shared Inbox?

Before we start with the process of adding rules to a shared mailbox in Office 365, we should first learn how to create a shared mailbox. follow the steps given below: 

1. first open your Outlook 365 account settings. 
2. In the email tab, click on the New option. 
3. Now, give a name to your new shared inbox. 
4. Fill out the details of the shared inbox such as email address and password. 
5. Next, sign in with your account so that you get the access to the shared mailbox. 
6. Restart Outlook 365 to implement the changes. 

Now your shared inbox is ready to start adding rules. 

Common Shared Inbox Rules Users can Use

Every rule that users create in Outlook 365 requires to have 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 rules more specifically 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 more easier to manage: 

Automatic replies to emails After Adding Rules to a Shared Mailbox in Office 365

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 arrives” 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 you 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 reason as to why these rules will stop working. Some of the most common reasons include, enough space in the mailbox, and 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 256KB. You can solve this issue by deleting rules that are not being used in order 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 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 resolve. 

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 is as follows: 

1. Migrate emails, documents, calendars, from Office 365 tenant to another.
2. 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 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 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 to start the process. 

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 emails, automatic replies to emails, and even sending every mail that is sent out. 

In case you face any issue, you should shift you 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.