How to setup Automatic Reply for Shared Mailbox

Question

_{Friday, March 18, 2016 3:36 AM | 1 vote}

Exchange 2010
Outlook 2013 Client

Hello People, Here's the situation, I have an existing Shared Mailbox, multiple users have fullaccess and send-as accessrights on it. I have to configure an automatic reply so that whenever someone sends an email to that Shared Mailbox, the sender gets an automatic reply. I have done this for individual users but not sure if it will work for a Shared Mailbox. 

I tried the GUI way and gave myself fullaccess to the Shared Mailbox and opened in my Outlook client. But when I am attempting to set up rules for it, I see rules for my profile. I cant see 'manage rules and alerts' for that particular Shared Mailbox. What am I doing wrong? 

Thanks in advance.

All replies (6)

_{Friday, March 18, 2016 6:31 AM ✅Answered}

Try enabling the account for the shared mailbox, log on as that account, set the rules, disable the account again and then see if it works.

Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."
Celebrating 20 years of providing Exchange peer support!

_{Friday, March 18, 2016 9:03 AM | 8 votes}

To configure the Auto-responder using Microsoft Outlook, follow the instructions below.

You can set up server-side rules and Out-of-office replies as long as your account has full access permission to the shared mailbox. It's as simple as making a new profile.

Because the shared mailbox doesn't have an account, you'll need to use your username and password to log on.

Create a new profile, entering the mailbox email address and your account password into the auto account setup dialog.
When the password dialog comes up again, change the username to your account's username information (or an account that has full access permission to the mailbox) and enter your password again.

1. View the Inbox of the Shared Mailbox, by clicking on the Inbox in the Navigation Pane.
   
2. From the Home tab, click on Rules and select Manage Rules & Alerts.
   
3. In the window that appears, confirm that the Shared Mailbox Inbox name appears in the Apply changes to this folder: field. If so, click on New Rule....
   
4. In the window that appears, click on Apply rule on messages I receive, then click on the Next button.
   
5. Check the box next to Where my name is in the To box, then click on the Next button.
   
6. Under Step 1: Select action(s) check the box next to **have server reply using a specific message **.
   
7. Under Step 2: Edit the rule description click on the a specific message link.
   
8. In the window that appears, enter a Subject and body for your auto-response email. When complete, in theMessage tab, click on Save & Close button, then click on the Next button.
   
9. Optional - Exceptions can now be defined in the window that appears, if desired. Otherwise, click the Next button.
10. The next window allows you to specify a name for the rule. When you have named the rule, click the Finish button and the auto-respond setup is complete.

Regards, ASP _______________ Please “Vote As Helpful” if you find my contribution useful or “Mark As Answer” if it does answer your question. That will encourage me - and others - to take time out to help you.

_{Monday, March 21, 2016 7:55 PM}

Thanks ASP20, I should have mentioned this in my question - I did have a look at https://it.vanderbilt.edu/services/messaging/email/sem/autorespond.php (the site those screenshots are from). The question is that its a shared mailbox and is shared by multiple users and it appears as a secondary mailbox in their Outlook profile. But thanks for pitching in.

_{Monday, March 21, 2016 7:56 PM}

Thanks Ed, I will give it a shot. Didn't think it was that tricky.

_{Wednesday, April 5, 2017 4:19 PM}

I know this is an old post but as it's popping up in Google to a search on this subject, i think it's valid to update it. The answer proposed by ASP20 does work but you may need to disable caching to get it to open the mailbox. It allows you to configure the mailbox and you get the magic three green ticks but when you attempt to open the mailbox you get:

If you get this message, disable caching on the profile. It may be that whilst shared mailboxes do allow you to log in directly, that caching is disabled on them? Otherwise this works perfectly. Thanks!

Cheers

_{Thursday, April 6, 2017 6:51 PM}

ASP20 - Thank you so much for your detailed instructions!!! worked like a charm!