Convert unlicensed user to a Shared Mailbox

Luís Costa 226 Reputation points
2023-01-18T11:09:42.1+00:00

Hello,

I have some users that are not assigned a license to Exchange Online.

I need to convert that user account to a shared mailbox. Is there any way to do that in a portal?

Thanks for the help

Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365
Formerly Office 365, is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft which adds to and includes the Microsoft Office product line.
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Microsoft Exchange Online
Microsoft Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Exchange Online: A Microsoft email and calendaring hosted service.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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Accepted answer
  1. Yuki Sun-MSFT 41,216 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2023-01-19T04:13:25.9066667+00:00

    Hi @Luís Costa,

    With the current setup (Exchange on-prem with Hybrid Mode), users are created in AD and then a remote mailbox is created as a shared mailbox for that user.

    Do you mean currently you are running the "Enable-RemoteMailbox" PowerShell command with the "-Shared" switch from Exchange on-prem?

    To the best of my knowledge, if you want to convert a synced user account to shared mailbox from the portal, agree with the replies above that you may have to assign a license to it first. If your concern is that there are no spare licenses available, you can remove one from a user who doesn't require a license or is not using Office 365 services currently temporally.

    Below are some similar links for reference:


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3 additional answers

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  1. Hoekstra Jelle 501 Reputation points
    2023-01-18T12:47:03.6666667+00:00

    You could do it through the portal (M365 admin center; admin.microsoft.com) but you will have to license them first in order to convert their mailbox to a shared mailbox.

    If you have Teams Exploratory Trial licenses available you could use these (assign these to a user) to make use of exchange and convert the mailbox to shared through the portal afterwards, you could then remove the license and the mailbox will be retained as a shared mailbox.

    Hope this helps!


    If it does, please accept the answer

    1 person found this answer helpful.

  2. Pratik Shah 5 Reputation points
    2023-01-18T13:55:24.1166667+00:00

    You need to assign license to those existing users (UserMailBox) first before converting into Shared Mailbox (Assuming here, those users were assigned to Exchange license earlier and have UserMailbox existed in Exchange Online.) You can check it here - [https://admin.exchange.microsoft.com/#/mailboxes

    Also, you can create new shared mailbox directly from Exchange Portal based on your need. You don't need to assign Exchange license to those shared mailboxes.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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  3. Luís Costa 226 Reputation points
    2023-01-18T15:04:23.11+00:00

    Thanks for your answers.
    With the current setup (Exchange on-prem with Hybrid Mode), users are created in AD and then a remote mailbox is created as a shared mailbox for that user.

    I'm looking for a way to do this from a portal, without using Exchange on-prem.
    From what you are suggesting, and according to the documentation, the only way is to assign a license.

    Any suggestions about another alternative?

    Thanks

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