Convert to shared mailbox

Question

Hi

I would like to know from you experts what would be the consequences of converting a regular mailbox that have been active for quite a time to a shared one?

1. what happens with the people that permissions here already ?
2. what happens with the mails already on the mailbox?
3. what happens with authentication ?
4. what happens with license?, will it be removed automatically or i have to do it afterward manually in Azure?

thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hello @Alain Diaz Quesada !

Welcome to Microsoft QnA!

For your question i understand you need info in converting a Shared Mailbox effects :

1.       Permissions: When you convert a regular mailbox to a shared mailbox, the existing permissions on the mailbox are retained. This means that the people who already have permissions to access the mailbox will still have access after the conversion. However, keep in mind that shared mailboxes are designed for collaborative use, so it's important to review and adjust the permissions to ensure they align with the intended usage of the shared mailbox.

2.       Existing mails: The emails already present in the regular mailbox will be retained and accessible in the shared mailbox after the conversion. All the existing mailbox content, including emails, folders, and other items, will be available in the shared mailbox.

3.       Authentication: The authentication process for accessing the shared mailbox remains the same as accessing any other mailbox in your organization. Users with appropriate permissions can access the shared mailbox using their own credentials, and they will need to authenticate themselves to access the shared mailbox's content.

4.       License: Converting a regular mailbox to a shared mailbox does not automatically remove the license associated with the regular mailbox. You will need to manually remove the license for the regular mailbox if you want to free up the license for other users or purposes. In Azure or Microsoft 365 administration portal, you can manage the licenses assigned to users and make the necessary adjustments.

Before you begin

Here are some really important things that you need to know:

    The user mailbox needs a license assigned to it before you convert it to a shared mailbox. Otherwise, you won't see the option to convert the mailbox. If you've removed the license, add it back so you can convert the mailbox. After converting the user mailbox to a shared mailbox, you can remove the license from the user's account.

    Without a license, shared mailboxes are limited to 50 GB. You might need to delete a bunch of large messages (say, messages with attachments) from the shared mailbox to shrink it down so you can remove the license.

    To increase the size limit to 100 GB, assign an Exchange Online Plan 2 license to the shared mailbox.

    If you assign an Exchange Online Plan 1 license and an Exchange Online Archiving add-on license to the shared mailbox, you can enable auto-expanding archiving for additional archive storage capacity.

    Don't delete the old user's account, because the account is required to anchor the shared mailbox. If you've already deleted the user account, see Convert the mailbox of a deleted user.

    You don't need to reset the account password of the user mailbox. However, if you don't reset the password, the original username and password will continue to work on the shared mailbox after the conversion is finished.

    Inbox rules are preserved after the user mailbox is converted to a shared mailbox.

    To put an In-Place Hold or a Litigation Hold on a shared mailbox, you must assign an Exchange Online Plan 2 license or an Exchange Online Plan 1 license and an Exchange Online Archiving add-on license to the shared mailbox.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/admin/email/convert-user-mailbox-to-shared-mailbox?view=o365-worldwide

 I hope this helps!

Kindly mark the answer as Accepted and Upvote in case it helped!

Regards

Answer 2

Hi @Alain Diaz Quesada ,

 

Agree with Konstantinos Passadis  answered above.

In addition, before we convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox there are a few things that you need to know. A shared mailbox comes with some limitations:

 

1. Mailbox size limited to 50Gb
2. You can’t sign in directly to a shared mailbox, you will need a user account for that
3. No Online Archive
4. Share the mailbox with no more than 25 persons
5. Users can delete mail from a shared mailbox, there is no way to prevent that.

 

Best regards,

Jarvis

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Answer 3

Thank you both your feedback has been really helpful is a pity I can only choose 1 answer because both were really informative.