Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Feb 06, 2019

Solved

Reuse/convert a Shared Mailbox alias to a alias of an active user?

3 Questions What I found so fare. I can give the shared mailbox a new alias, delete the active user that was auto-created when the shared mailbox was initially created, then wait for ~15min, and th...

exchange

office 365

VasilMichev
Feb 08, 2019
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.

thegreatdane

Copper Contributor

Feb 07, 2019

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.

ChrisWebbTech

MVP

Feb 07, 2019

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.

VasilMichev
MVP
Feb 07, 2019
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.
- ChrisWebbTech
  MVP
  Feb 07, 2019
  Oh is there not? I've always sat on Hybrid that still had address policies just assumed it would default as well in 365. My bad ;).
  
  If you are on hybrid thegreatdane, then it could be the policy issue I talk about in my response, otherwise prolly not :P. If you could give a few more specifics to how you are trying to make the change and environment we can go from there.
  - thegreatdane
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 07, 2019
    Hey Chris
    
    I'm on a pure cloud solution, and just starting out so all this policies/powershell is still new to me. But im getting there :)
- VasilMichev
  MVP
  Feb 07, 2019
  Aaaaand I just remembered that we do need to have at least one alias matching the UPN. Wonder why I blog about things, just to forget them later: https://www.michev.info/Blog/Post/2048/did-you-know-at-least-one-smtp-address-needs-to-match-the-upn-in-office-365
  - thegreatdane
    Copper Contributor
    Feb 07, 2019
    Hey VasilMichev
    
    Thanks for the post, thats seems spot on. Did I understand it correctly, that you are unable to control/change which alias matches the UPN? And therefore are unable to delete/reuse it?
    
    Also thanks ChrisWebbTech for your comments, it all helps to get me going.
    
    /Riko