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15 min fix 3 min read Recently reviewedBeginner

By , IT support technician

Quick Answer

You cannot set up an autoresponder for a shared mailbox using the normal Outlook desktop app. You must log in to Outlook on the web (office.com), open the shared mailbox in a separate window, and access the Automatic Replies settings from there.

How to Set Up an Email Autoresponder for a Shared Mailbox ​

Estimated Time to Fix: 15 minutes

Applies to: Microsoft 365 Shared Mailboxes, Outlook on the Web
Article Type: How-To
Last Updated: 2026-07-21

Summary ​

Setting up an automatic reply for your personal email takes a minute. Setting one up for a shared team inbox (like support@ or info@) is a bit trickier because you can't do it from the standard Outlook desktop application. You have to log into the web version of Outlook to configure it.

Prerequisites ​

  • You must have permission to access the shared mailbox.
  • You need a web browser (Edge, Chrome, Safari).

Instructions ​

1. Log in to Outlook on the Web ​

You cannot use the desktop version of Outlook for this process.

  1. Open your web browser and go to outlook.office.com.
  2. Log in using your personal business email and password (do not try to log in with the shared email address).

2. Open the shared mailbox in a new tab ​

You need to open the shared mailbox as if it were its own separate account.

  1. Click your profile picture or initials in the top right corner of the screen.
  2. In the menu that drops down, click Open another mailbox.
  3. A small window will pop up. Type the email address of the shared mailbox (e.g., [email protected]).
  4. Select the mailbox from the directory list and click Open.
  5. A new browser tab will open showing the inbox of the shared mailbox.

3. Configure the Automatic Reply ​

Now that you are managing the shared mailbox directly, you can access its settings.

  1. In the new tab, click the Settings gear icon in the top right corner.
  2. On the left navigation pane, click Mail, then click Automatic replies.
  3. Toggle the switch to Turn on automatic replies.
  4. If you want this reply to run permanently (like a "We received your email" confirmation), uncheck the box that says "Send replies only during a time period."
  5. Scroll down to the second text box labeled Send replies outside your organization. This is the one that matters for clients.
  6. Check the box for "Send replies outside your organization", select "Reply to all external senders", and paste your autoresponder message into the text box.
  7. Click Save at the bottom.

Troubleshooting ​

WARNING

Never set up a rule that automatically forwards emails from a shared mailbox to a personal Gmail or Yahoo account, and then tries to auto-reply from there. This causes massive security risks and often results in your domain being marked as spam.

Symptom / ErrorPotential CauseSolution
"Open another mailbox" gives an Access Denied errorPermission delayIf your IT admin granted you access today, it can take up to 2 hours for the web version to recognize your permissions. Try again later.
Clients are not getting the auto-replyUsed the wrong text boxMake sure you pasted the message into the "Send replies outside your organization" box. The top box only replies to your own coworkers.