Exchange 2016/2019 – convert a mailbox to a shared mailbox

In this tutorial, I will explain how to convert a “normal” mailbox into a shared mailbox.

The main difference between a user mailbox and a shared mailbox is that the latter is linked to an Active Directory user account which is deactivated, therefore more “secure”. The other interest is that these mailboxes do not need a license.

Another difference, which can be annoying in some cases, the shared mailbox does not allow sending on behalf of, which means that the recipient will only see the email address of the shared mailbox if it is used to send messages.

Here, we will see how to convert a mailbox to a shared mailbox.

We are going to convert the demo mailbox **** 1.

On an Exchange server open the Exchange Management Shell console.

To convert the mailbox, we will use the Set-Mailbox cmdlet with the Identity parameters to indicate the mailbox to convert and Type which will have the value shared.

Which give :

Set-Mailbox -Identity "Mailbox Name" -Type shared

For the example mailbox:

Set-Mailbox -Identity "manifs n******s" -Type shared

The command has no return.

If we look in the ECP, we find the mailbox at the level of shared mailboxes.

If you look at the user in Active Directory, it is now disabled.

You now know how to convert a mailbox to a shared mailbox.