Adding a Shared Mailbox in a Separate Profile Using Outlook for Windows

Owned by June Miller (Deactivated)
Last updated: Apr 09, 2022 by Sarah Nguyen (Deactivated)
3 min read

This article, for faculty, staff, student workers, and Technology Support Center agents and shows how to add a shared resource as its own profile in the Outlook desktop client.

Setting Up a Shared Mailbox in a Separate Profile using Outlook for Windows

Adding a shared inbox in a separate mail profile in Outlook will keep sent and received messages in the shared mailbox folders, rather than displaying them alongside or combined with your personal Outlook profile emails. 

Some icons may differ in coloration from these screenshots provided due to the various versions of Windows in use; these steps remain the same for all versions of Windows.

Make sure your Outlook desktop client program is closed before proceeding.

First, navigate to the Mail app in the Control Panel. Click the Windows Start button in the lower-left corner of your screen. 

  1. Click on the Control Panel. If you cannot see the icon for the control panel in your Start Menu, select Cortana and type "Control Panel." When you see the icon for the Control Panel, click to open it. 

  2. Inside the Control Panel, you may need to change the view to see all the options available. If you only see 6 or so large icons, click View by in the upper right of the window and change it from "Category" to "Large icons."

    category drop-down

  3. Inside the list of icons, click Mail (32-bit) or Mail, whichever you have.

    mail option

  4. In Mail Setup, click Show Profiles.

Adding the Shared Profile

  1. Click Add...  Make sure the Prompt for a profile to be used radio button is selected.

  2. Type the name you want to give the new mailbox profile. It does not have to be the email address or mailbox name; this is just the name for the Profile in the list. 

  3. Outlook may populate the email address field. Erase your firstname.lastname@uconn.edu and enter the address of the group inbox in that field. Leave the Password field blank and click Next.

  4. After a short delay, it will launch an authentication window. In it, erase the group email inbox that is prefilled and enter your firstname.lastname@uconn.edu and NetID password.
    Note: This window may appear slightly differently depending on the version of Outlook used. Below are some examples of the authentication window you may see.

  5. The profile wizard may stall for a moment while it authenticates on your behalf, and then the profile will be created. Click Finish.

  6. Upon launching Outlook, it will ask you which inbox you would like to open. Select the one you wish to open (your personal or a shared mailbox) and click OK. If an authentication window appears, erase the email address pre-entered by Outlook and instead type your Login ID (firstname.lastname@uconn.edu) along with your NetID password. This will open the desired inbox. 

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