Inbox forwarding rule to an alias

[darrellmillar]

Hi all,

I'm trying to configure an inbox rule that will forward certain messages to an alias address. The purpose of this is set another rule on the user mailbox that will search the header, look for the alias, and move that message to a folder.

I have created the rule easy enough for the user mailbox, but when I attempt to create the rule in Admin Center, I enter the alias address to forward to, but when it saves, it shows the root email address, so the rule doesn't work as intended. The root email address is a ticketing system address, and I don't want these messages creating tickets, rather putting them in a separate mail folder.

EG: Main mailbox is abc@xyz.com, My alias is def@xyz.com. I set me rule in admin center to forward (based on subject text) to def@xyz.com. It saves the rule as forwarding to abc@xyz.com. This is what is then shows in the header and where the rule breaks down on the user mailbox.

Has anyone successfully tried this?

TIA

[#2]

@darrellmillar 

Hi, this sounds very impractical, especially considering that the alias email address exists in the same mailbox as the primary address.

Would a better solution not be to remove the alias from that user, and instead configure a Shared mailbox and grant delegate access?

[#3]

@PeterRising 

Thanks for the reply. This is a shared mailbox. How would delegating control allow me to separate the forwarded messages from regular messages?

[#4]

@darrellmillar 

Ah I see, did not realise it was actually a Shared mailbox.  So, let me make sure I understand this correctly;

You have a shared mailbox with a primary email address and an alias/secondary email address?

When an email is sent to the secondary email address, you want a rule to move that email to another folder?

Is that correct?  If so, you may use the steps in this guide to achieve this - https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/add-rules-to-a-shared-mailbox-b0963400-2a51-4c64-afc7-b816d...

I have just tested this myself using the Outlook on the Web method and it works great.

[#5]

@PeterRising

Thanks. 

I already have this part working. It's the first part giving trouble.

I want to catch specific emails coming in to the whole organization and send to the alias, and not the main address. Setting up the rule in the admin center, the rule is translating the alias to the main mailbox address, putting that in the header. I need the alias to be in the header of the forwarded message. 

[#6]

@darrellmillar 

OK, are the messages you want to catch all going to have a common factor, eg something in the subject line?

[#7]

@PeterRising 

Correct. As you can see in these screen shots attached, spam@ is my alias and servicedesk@ is my primary address. You can see that when I save, it reverts to the primary address, meaning it's going to forward to servicedesk@ and not the alias

[#8 · Accepted solution]

@darrellmillar 

OK, understood.  This is by design I'm afraid to say.  Inbox or Transport rules will always resolve to the primary email address of any mailbox.  

My suggestion would be to remove the spam@ address from the servicedesk@ mailbox, and create a new dedicated shared mailbox for the spam@ email address.  You can grant permissions to whoever needs to view the spam@ mailbox.  Then when you create your transport rule, you can be confident that it will not resolve to any other email address.

[#9]

@PeterRising 

Thank you. This is where I was leaning.

[#10]

@darrellmillar 

Cool, hope that works Ok for you.  :thumbs_up: