Delegate Email Access in Outlook

Allow someone else to manage your mail and calendar

Similar to having an assistant that helps you manage your incoming paper mail, another person, known as a delegate, can receive and respond to email messages and meeting requests and responses on your behalf. You can also grant the delegate additional permissions to read, create, or change items in your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox.

What does Delegate Access do?

Delegate Access goes beyond just sharing access to your folders. Delegates are granted additional permissions, such as creating email messages or responding to meeting requests on your behalf.

As the person granting permission, you determine the level of access that the delegate has to your folders. You can grant a delegate permission to read items in your folders or to read, create, change, and delete items. By default, when you add a delegate, the delegate has full access to your Calendar and Tasks folders. The delegate can also respond to meeting requests on your behalf.

What are the delegate permission levels?

• Reviewer     With this permission, the delegate can read items in your folders.

• Author     With this permission, the delegate can read and create items, and change and delete items that he or she creates. For example, a delegate can create task requests and meeting requests directly in your Task or Calendar folder and then send the item on your behalf.

• Editor     With this permission, the delegate can do everything that an Author has permission to do and additionally can change and delete the items that you created.

Make someone my delegate:

A delegate automatically receives Send on Behalf permissions. By default, the delegate can read only your meeting requests and responses. The delegate isn’t granted permission to read other messages in your Inbox.

1. Click the File tab at the top left corner of Outlook.

2. Click Account Settings, and then click Delegate Access.

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3. Click Add.

    a. If Add doesn’t appear, an active connection might not exist between Outlook and Exchange. The Outlook status bar displays the connection status.

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4. Type the name of the person whom you want to designate as your delegate, or search for and then click the name in the search results list.

Note: The delegate must be a person in your organization's Exchange Global Address List (GAL).

5. Search and Select the user.

6. Click Add.

7. Click OK.

8. In the Delegate Permissions dialog box, accept the default permission settings or select custom access levels for Exchange folders.

If a delegate needs permission to work only with meeting requests and responses, the default permission settings, such as Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me, are sufficient. You can leave the Inbox permission setting at None. Meeting requests and responses will go directly to the delegate's Inbox.

    a. Note: By default, the delegate is granted Editor (can read, create, and modify items) permission to your Calendar folder. When the delegate responds to a meeting on your behalf, it is automatically added to your Calendar folder.

   b. To send a message to notify the delegate of the changed permissions, select the Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions check box.

   c. If you want, select the Delegate can see my private items check box.

Important: This setting affects all Exchange folders. This includes all Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and Journal folders. There is no way to grant access to private items in only specified folders.

9. Click OK.

Notes: 

• Messages sent with Send on Behalf permissions include both the delegate's and your names next to From. When a message is sent with Send As permissions, only the your name appears.

• Once you add someone as a delegate, they can add your Exchange mailbox to their Outlook profile.

Change permissions for a delegate:

1. Click the File tab.

2. Click Account Settings, and then click Delegate Access.

3. Click the name of the delegate for whom you want to change permissions.

4. Click Permissions.

5. Make the necessary changes to the permissions for the user.

6. Click OK.

7. Click OK.

Note: If you want to remove all Delegate Access permissions, don’t click Permissions but instead click Remove and skip the rest of these steps.

Change the permissions for any Outlook folder that the delegate has access to.

To send a message to notify the delegate of the changed permissions, select the Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions check box.

    Note: If you want copies of meeting requests and responses that you receive to be sent to a delegate, ensure that the delegate is assigned Editor (can read, create, and modify items) permission to your Calendar folder, and then select the Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me check box.

Change delegate access to private items:

If you have assigned permissions to a delegate so that he or she can access your Outlook folders, you can hide personal information in appointments, meetings, tasks, and contacts. Open each personal item, and in the Tags group, click Private.

To grant access to your private items, do the following:

1. Click the File tab.

2. Click Account Settings, and then click Delegate Access.

3. Click the name of the delegate for whom you want to change access to your private appointments, and then click Permissions.

4. Select the Delegate can see my private items check box.

Important: You shouldn’t rely on the Private feature to prevent other people from accessing the details of your appointments, contacts, or tasks. To ensure that other people can’t read the items that you marked as private, don’t grant them Reviewer (can read items) permission to your Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks folder.