Forum Discussion
Reuse/convert a Shared Mailbox alias to a alias of an active user?
Can be either secondary or primary, but in any case you can just change the UPN to anything you'd like and "free" the alias.
Every mailbox in Exchange comes with a corresponding user object, shared mailboxes included. The only difference is that for shared mailboxes this is a "managed" user account, for which you generally shouldn't care about.
Anyway, for your scenario simply add a new alias to the shared mailbox and remove the one you want to re-use. Do not delete the user object. After a min or so you should be able to assign the alias to another object.
I have tried what you suggested. Adding a new alias to the shared mailbox, set ithe new alias as primary and deleting the old one.
But instead of being able to reuse the alias, after 1min it just pops right back up as a secondary alias for the shared mailbox. And of course I am then unable to reuse it.
- This is due to the alias / mailnickname field of the shared mailbox not being changed and you are just editing the e-mail addresses manually. There typically is a default mail policy that creates the primary e-mail address off this mailnickname attribute. Wouldn't you just keep the aliases all on the single mailbox and keep your rules there to route the messages to the folders? Moving the alias away seems to be a hassle.
Anyway, if you have to move it, set your actual alias (Below Display name in EAC) on the shared mailbox first, to the new name and this will generate a new primary e-mail address. Then wait and you can remove the "e-mail address" and assign it to another user/shared mailbox.Um, there are no email address policies in O365. Most likely the OP is trying to make the change from the O365 admin center... which is known to cause more harm than good with its "helpful" "features". I'd suggest making the change via PowerShell or the EAC.
