Covert users mailbox to shared mailbox?

We are running into a case where we are running out of licenses for user mailboxes. Because of this when a users is suspended pending an investigation we were pulling the license from their mailbox. ...

admin

office 365

HidMov
Sep 18, 2020
Hi finsfree

You are correct - convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox, then remove the licence and the emails will remain. If the person returns, then convert back to a user mailbox and assign a licence.

One thing to be wary of is if a mailbox is converted to a shared mailbox and the user account it was associated with is deleted or removed from AzureAD then the mailbox will be deleted - this is because a shared mailbox requires an "anchor" object.

HidMov

Iron Contributor

Sep 18, 2020

Hi finsfree

You are correct - convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox, then remove the licence and the emails will remain. If the person returns, then convert back to a user mailbox and assign a licence.

One thing to be wary of is if a mailbox is converted to a shared mailbox and the user account it was associated with is deleted or removed from AzureAD then the mailbox will be deleted - this is because a shared mailbox requires an "anchor" object.

finsfree

Copper Contributor

Sep 18, 2020

HidMov

Thank you for confirming this. I thought there was a way to solve this.

Thanks for the added bonus about deleting a user.

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Covert users mailbox to shared mailbox?

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