Manage mail users in Exchange Online

Article
10/26/2023

In Exchange Online organizations, mail users are similar to mail contacts. Both have external email addresses and both contain information about people outside your Exchange Online organization that can be displayed in the shared address book and other address lists. However, unlike a mail contact, a mail user has sign in credentials in your Microsoft 365 organization and can access resources. For more information about mail contacts and mail users, see Recipients in Exchange Online.

You manage mail users in the Exchange admin center (EAC) or in PowerShell (Exchange Online PowerShell in organizations with Exchange Online mailboxes.

What do you need to know before you begin?

To open the Exchange admin center (EAC), see Exchange admin center in Exchange Online.
To connect to Exchange Online PowerShell, see Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell. To connect to standalone EOP PowerShell, see Connect to Exchange Online Protection PowerShell.
Mail users don't require licenses in Exchange Online.
When you create mail users in EOP PowerShell, you might encounter throttling. Also, the EOP PowerShell cmdlets use a batch processing method that results in a propagation delay of a few minutes before the results of the commands are visible.
You need permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipients" entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online article.
For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this article, see Keyboard shortcuts for the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Online or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the Exchange admin center to manage mail users

Use the new EAC to create mail users

In the new EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
Click + Add a contact and configure the following settings in the details pane. Settings marked with an ^* are required.
- Contact type: Select Mail user from the drop-down list.
- First name
- Last name
- ^*Display name: By default, this box shows the values from the First name, and Last name boxes. You can accept this value or change it.
- ^*Email: Enter the user's email address. The domain should be external to your cloud-based organization.
- ^*Alias: Enter a unique alias, using up to 64 characters for the user.
- ^*User ID and Domain: Enter the account that the person will use to sign in to the service. The user ID consists of a username on the left side of the at (@) symbol and a domain on the right side. Select the domain from the drop-down list.
- Password
- Confirm
When you're finished, click Add and then click Close.

Use the new EAC to modify mail users

In the new EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
In the list of users, select the mail user that you want to modify.
In the details pane, click to view or edit the user's details.

When you're finished, click Save.

Contact Information:

Use the Contact information section, to view, or edit the user's information. The information on this page is displayed in the address book.

Web site
Fax phone
Street
City
State/Province
ZIP/Postal code
Country/Region

Organization:

Use the Organization section, to record detailed information about the user's role in the organization. This information is displayed in the address book. Also, you can create a virtual organization chart that's accessible from email clients such as Outlook.

Title: Use this box to view or change the recipient's title.
Department: Use this box to view or change the department in which the user works. You can use this box to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups, email address policies, or address lists.
Manager: To add a manager, enter the name and select from the drop-down list.
Direct reports: You can't modify this box. A direct report is a user who reports to a specific manager. If you've specified a manager for the user, that user appears as a direct report in the details of the manager's mailbox. For example, Kari manages Chris and Kate, so Kari is specified in the Manager box for Chris and Kate, and Chris and Kate appear in the Direct reports box in the properties of Kari's account.

Use the new EAC to remove mail users

In the new EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
Select the mail user that you want to remove, and then click Delete.

Note

New EAC doesn't allow bulk edit of mail users yet.

Use the Classic EAC to create mail users

In the Classic EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
Click New and then select Mail user.
In the New mail user page that opens, configure the following settings. Settings marked with an ^* are required.
- First name
- Initials: The person's middle initial.
- Last name
- ^*Display name: By default, this box shows the values from the First name, Initials, and Last name boxes. You can accept this value or change it. The value should be unique, and has a maximum length of 64 characters.
- ^*Alias: Enter a unique alias, using up to 64 characters, for the user
- External email address: Enter the user's email address. The domain should be external to your cloud-based organization.
- ^*User ID: Enter the account that the person will use to sign in to the service. The user ID consists of a username on the left side of the at (@) symbol (@) and a domain on the right side.
- ^*New password and ^*Confirm password: Enter and reenter the account password. Verify that the password complies with the password length, complexity, and history requirements of your domain.
When you've finished, click Save to create the mail user.

Use the Classic EAC to modify mail users

In the Classic EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
In the list of contacts, select the mail user that you want to modify, and then click Edit .
On the mail user properties page that opens, click one of the following tabs to view or change properties.

When you're finished, click Save.

General:

Use the General tab to view or change basic information about the mail user.

First name
Initials
Last name
Display name: This name appears in your organization's address book, on the To: and From: lines in email, and in the list of contacts in the EAC. This name can't contain empty spaces before or after the display name.
User ID: This is the user's account in Microsoft 365. You can't modify this value here.
Hide from address lists: Select this check box to prevent the mail user from appearing in the address book and other address lists that are defined in your organization. After you select this check box, users can still send messages to the recipient by using the email address.
More options > Custom attributes: Click Edit in the Custom attributes pages that opens, enter values for Custom Attribute 1 through Custom Attribute 15. When you're finished, click OK.

Contact information:

Use the Contact information tab to view or change the user's contact information. The information on this page is displayed in the address book.

Street
City
State/Province
ZIP/Postal code
Country/Region
Work phone
Mobile phone
Fax
More options
- Office
- Home phone
- Web page
- Notes
Tip

You can use the State/Province value to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups, email address policies, or address lists.

Organization:

Use the Organization tab to record detailed information about the user's role in the organization. This information is displayed in the address book. Also, you can create a virtual organization chart that's accessible from email clients such as Outlook.

Title: Use this box to view or change the recipient's title.
Department: Use this box to view or change the department in which the user works. You can use this box to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups, email address policies, or address lists.
Company: Use this box to view or change the company for which the user works. You can use this box to create recipient conditions for dynamic distribution groups, email address policies, or address lists.
Manager: To add a manager, click Browse. In Select Manager, select a person, and then click OK.
Direct reports: You can't modify this box. A direct report is a user who reports to a specific manager. If you've specified a manager for the user, that user appears as a direct report in the details of the manager's mailbox. For example, Kari manages Chris and Kate, so Kari is specified in the Manager box for Chris and Kate, and Chris and Kate appear in the Direct reports box in the properties of Kari's account.

Email addresses:

Use the Email addresses tab to view or change the email addresses associated with the mail user. This includes the mail user's primary SMTP address, their external email address, and any associated proxy addresses. The primary SMTP address (also known as the reply address) is displayed in bold text in the address list, with the uppercase SMTP value in the Type column. By default, the external email address is the primary SMTP address.

Add: Click Add . In the New email address page that appears, configure the following settings:
- Email address type: Verify SMTP is selected.
- Email address: Enter the email address to add.
- Make this the reply address: For mail users, you shouldn't need to select this option (the external email address is the reply address).
When you're finished, click OK.
Edit: Select the email address that you want to modify, and then click Edit . In the Email address page that appears, configure the following settings:
- Email address: Modify the existing email address.
- Make this the reply address: This setting only appears if the email address you selected isn't already the reply address.
When you're finished, click OK.
Remove: Select the email address that you want to remove, and then click Remove . You can't remove the reply address.

Mail flow settings:

In the Message delivery restrictions section, click View details. In the Message delivery restrictions page that opens, configure the following settings:

Accept messages from: Specify who can send messages to this mail user. Unspecified senders are blocked.
- All senders: This is the default value.
- Only senders in the following list: Click Add . Select a recipient, click Add, and repeat as many times as necessary. When you're finished, click OK.
Require that all senders are authenticated: Select this option to prevent anonymous users (external users) from sending messages to the user.
Reject messages from: Specify who isn't allowed to send messages to this mail user.
- No senders: This is the default value.
- Senders in the following list: Click Add . Select a recipient, click Add, and repeat as many times as necessary When you're finished, click OK.
When you're finished, click OK.

Member of:

Use the Member of tab to view a list of the distribution groups or mail-enabled security groups that the user belongs to. You can't change group membership on this page. Note that dynamic distribution groups aren't displayed on this page because their membership is calculated each time they're used.

MailTip:

Use the MailTip tab to add an alert for potential issues before a user sends messages to this recipient. The text is displayed in the InfoBar when this recipient is added to the To, Cc, or Bcc lines of a new email message.

MailTips can include HTML tags, but scripts aren't allowed. The length of a custom MailTip can't exceed 175 displayed characters. HTML tags aren't counted in the limit.

Use the Classic EAC to bulk edit mail users

When you bulk edit mail users in the EAC, you can change the following types of properties:

Contact information
Organization

In the Classic EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
In the list of contacts, select two or more mail users. You can't bulk edit a combination of mail contacts and mail users.

You can select multiple adjacent mail users by holding down the Shift key and clicking the first mail user, and then clicking the last mail user you want to edit. You can also select multiple mail users by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking each one that you want to edit.
In the Details pane, under Bulk Edit, click Update under Contact Information or Organization.
Make the changes on the properties page and then save your changes.

Use the Classic EAC to remove mail users

In the Classic EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts.
Select the mail user that you want to remove, and then click Remove .

Use PowerShell to manage mail users

In Exchange Online PowerShell, you use the following cmdlets to manage mail users:

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to create mail users

This example creates a mail user for Rene Valdes:

The name and display name is Rene Valdes (if you don't use the DisplayName parameter, the value of the Name parameter is used for the display name).
The alias is renev.
The external email address is renevaldes@fabrikam.com.
The sign in name is renev@contoso.onmicrosoft.com.
The password is Pa$$word1.

New-MailUser -Name "Rene Valdes" -Alias renev -ExternalEmailAddress renevaldes@fabrikam.com -FirstName Rene -LastName Valdes -MicrosoftOnlineServicesID renev@contoso.onmicrosoft.com -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'P@ssw0rd' -AsPlainText -Force)

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-MailUser.

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to modify mail users

In general, use the Get-User and Set-User cmdlets to view and change organization and contact information properties. Use the Get-MailUser and Set-MailUser cmdlets to view or change mail-related properties, such as email addresses, the MailTip, custom attributes, and whether the mail user is hidden from address lists.

Use the Get-MailUser and Set-MailUser cmdlets to view and change properties for mail users. For information, see the following articles:

Here are some examples of using Exchange Online PowerShell to change mail user properties.

This example sets the external email address for Pilar Pinilla.

Set-MailUser "Pilar Pinilla" -ExternalEmailAddress pilarp@tailspintoys.com

This example hides all mail users from the organization's address book.

$MEU = Get-MailUser -ResultSize unlimited
$MEU | foreach {Set-MailUser -Identity $_ -HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled $true}

This example sets the Company property for all mail users to Contoso.

$U = Get-User -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'mailuser'"
$U | foreach {Set-User -Identity $_ -Company Contoso}

This example sets the CustomAttribute1 property to a value of ContosoEmployee for all mail users that have a value of Contoso in the Company property.

$Contoso = Get-User -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'mailuser') -and (Company -eq 'Contoso')"
$Contoso | foreach {Set-MailUser -Identity $_ -CustomAttribute1 ContosoEmployee}

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to remove mail users

To remove a mail user, use the following syntax:

Remove-MailUser -Identity <MailUserIdentity>

This example removes the mail user for Pilar Pinilla:

Remove-MailUser -Identity "Pilar Pinilla"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Remove-MailUser

How do you know these procedures worked?

To verify that you've successfully created, modified, or removed mail users, do any of the following steps:

In the new EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts. Verify the mail user is listed (or not listed). The Contact Type value is MailUser. Select the mail user from the list, and click to view or edit the user's details.
In the Classic EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts. Verify the mail user is listed (or not listed). The Contact Type value is Mail user. Select the mail user from the list, and click lick Edit to view the properties.
In Exchange Online PowerShell, replace <MailUserIdentity> with the name, email address, or alias of the mail user, and run the following command to verify that the mail user is listed (or not listed).
```
Get-MailUser -Identity <MailUserIdentity> | Format-List Name,Alias,DisplayName,ExternalEmailAddress
```

In Exchange Online PowerShell, use the Get-User and Get-MailUser cmdlets to verify the property changes you made.

Get-MailUser | Format-List Name,CustomAttribute1

Get-User -ResultSize unlimited -Filter "RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'mailuser'" | Format-List Name,Company

Use directory synchronization to manage mail users

In Exchange Online, directory synchronization is available for hybrid customers with on-premises and cloud-hosted mailboxes, and for fully-hosted Exchange Online customers whose Active Directory is on-premises.

In standalone EOP, directory synchronization is available for customers with on-premises Active Directory.

Notes:

If you use directory synchronization to manage your recipients, you can still add and manage users in the Microsoft 365 admin center, but they will not be synchronized with your on-premises Active Directory. This is because directory synchronization only syncs recipients from your on-premises Active Directory to the cloud.
Using directory synchronization is recommended for use with the following features:
- Outlook Safe Sender lists and Blocked Sender lists: When synchronized to the service, these lists will take precedence over spam filtering in the service. This lets users manage their own Safe Sender list and Blocked Sender list with individual sender and domain entries. For more information, see Configure junk email settings on Exchange Online mailboxes.
- Directory Based Edge Blocking (DBEB): For more information about DBEB, see Use Directory Based Edge Blocking to reject messages sent to invalid recipients.
- End user access to quarantine: To access their quarantined messages, recipients must have a valid user ID and password in the service. For more information about quarantine, see Find and release quarantined messages as a user.
- Mail flow rules (also known as transport rules): When you use directory synchronization, your existing Active Directory users and groups are automatically uploaded to the cloud, and you can then create mail flow rules that target specific users and/or groups without having to manually add them in the service. Note that dynamic distribution groups can't be synchronized via directory synchronization.

Get the necessary permissions and prepare for directory synchronization, as described in What is hybrid identity with Microsoft Entra ID?.

Synchronize directories with Microsoft Entra Connect (Microsoft Entra Connect)

Activate directory synchronization as described in Microsoft Entra Connect Sync: Understand and customize synchronization.
Install and configure an on-premises computer to run Microsoft Entra Connect as described in Prerequisites for Microsoft Entra Connect.
Select which installation type to use for Microsoft Entra Connect:

Important

When you finish the Azure Active Directory Sync Tool Configuration Wizard, the MSOL_AD_SYNC account is created in your Active Directory forest. This account is used to read and synchronize your on-premises Active Directory information. In order for directory synchronization to work correctly, make sure that TCP 443 on your local directory synchronization server is open.

After configuring your sync, be sure to verify that Microsoft Entra Connect is synchronizing correctly. In the EAC, go to Recipients > Contacts and view that the list of users was correctly synchronized from your on-premises environment.