Accessing Another User's Mailbox

Important items:

• The owner of the mailbox (i.e., the primary user) must delegate or grant the permissions to the secondary user (i.e., the delegate) to access the mailbox.
• Both the primary user (who grants the sharing permission) and the secondary user (i.e., the delegate who uses the sharing permission) must be Exchange users.
• The primary user must use Outlook to donate the sharing permissions.
• The secondary/delegate user must use Outlook to access the other user's mailbox.

 The owner/primary user…

1. Activates Outlook and uses Tools > Options and then clicks the Delegates tab
2. Clicks the Add button.
3. Locates the desired person in the Global Address List to subsequently act as a delegate.
4. Highlights the name in the list panel of the window and clicks the "Add à" button and clicks OK (or double-clicks the name). 
5. In the Delegate Permission window and for the calendar section, selects as desired the level of access from the dropdown list: None, Reviewer, Author, or Editor.  Similar permissions can be applied to other Outlook items of the mailbox for the same Delegate.
6. Clicks OK when all permissions have been granted to the delegate.
7. Repeats steps 2 through 6 for other delegates.
8. At the Options window, clicks Apply and then clicks OK

The delegate…

1. Opens Outlook and uses File > Open > Other User's Folder.
2. Enters the username of the primary user (who has already granted to the delegate the appropriate permissions).
3. Clicks OK to gain access to the primary Exchange user's mailbox items.
4. When finished, closes the primary user's inbox (or other mailbox ite+m) by clicking the Close box at the upper right corner of the window.  (CAUTION: using File > Exit will close the instance of Outlook, thereby concluding access to the delegate's own mailbox.

Last Updated: July 28, 2008