Forum Discussion

Iron Contributor

Nov 10, 2022

The sudden removal of public folder access in outlook on the web

Last week access to public folders was removed from outlook on the web with no announcement, does anyone know why? and why was the message centre not used to communicate this change ? Now you ge...

Iron Contributor

Nov 10, 2022

Gabe_Bratton Thank you for trying to find out about this, here is a screenshot of the message that we now see. It is so frustrating that communication of changes is now so disjointed in Microsoft.

Bhalchandra_Atre-MSFT

Microsoft

Nov 10, 2022

technonath Access to mail and calendar type PFs will continue working fine in OWA. The banner indicates Users will not be able to access Public Folders contacts from People Hub in Outlook Web App. Please visit People Hub in Outlook desktop to view and manage Public Folder(s) contacts.

technonath
Iron Contributor
Nov 11, 2022
Bhalchandra_Atre-MSFT Any chance of explaining why the sudden change? Also why this change is not documented anywhere or mentioned in the message centre.

Why is Owa not allowed to use shared contacts in any way now either via public folders or via a shared contacts folder in a shared mailbox?
- technonath
  Iron Contributor
  Nov 14, 2022
  Still no reply ? Please, please can we have some answers
  - Bhalchandra_Atre-MSFT
    Microsoft
    Nov 15, 2022
    technonath You can find the announcement here - https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/new-improved-contacts-on-outlook-web-app/ba-p/3639773
    
    The way forward is to use Outlook desktop client to access/manage public folders contacts
- technonath
  Iron Contributor
  Nov 11, 2022
  Also even stranger - 3 of us in the same tenant get this message - but 1 person in our tenant still has the ability to access the public folders. - This is a total mess.