A few days back, I was asked by an Office 365 user, “How do I backup a Shared Mailbox on my computer and why it is essential?” So, I simply replied there are lots of Office 365 Shared Mailbox limitations that force me to export emails from it and save them on the local environment so that I can prevent them from any data-loss situation.
Many of us use the shared mailbox in Exchange Online but never consider how often should we back up its data. A Shared mailbox is not like a normal Office 365 primary mailbox but a unique mailbox that can be accessed by multiple users to send & receive emails from the same address. It acts as a centralized service used for the sales department, HR department, etc.
In fact, the shared mailbox can only be created by Office 365 administrators due to which the users are unable to log into them directly. And, in order to get access to a shared mailbox, the user should have permissions like ‘Send As’ or ‘Full Access’ by an administrator. In fact, it also offers a shared calendar to manage team meeting and appointments. All in all, we can say that the use of a shared mailbox is very much essential for every business.
But, There’s More to The Story...
Regardless of advantages, the shared mailbox service possesses its own downsides. It is so often the case that the mailbox disadvantages lead to a disastrous data loss. The major Office 365 shared mailbox limitations have been discussed below:
- There are various cases where an employee leaves the organization and the administrator makes its mailbox as a shared mailbox so that the rest of the employees can access its data. But, when an administrator performs the same procedure, some configuration issues arise. Let’s talk about the below scenario where admin sets up a new shared mailbox and it was created after some conflict. However, when he tested the mailbox by sending a mail, no message arrived.
- In mobile devices, the built-in application does not provide support for O365 shared mailbox. This is one of the most common Office 365 shared mailbox restrictions. To get the access of this mailbox, you need to download and install OWA for Android or iOS platform. After that, the shared mailbox is automatically displayed when you configure the account in OWA application.
- Many times, when the user sends a mail from shared mailbox ID, the message does not appear in the Sent Items folder of the shared mailbox. Instead, the email is saved on the user’s Sent Items folder. This problem can be resolved by changing the default setting of a shared mailbox.
- Office 365 Shared Mailbox Size Limit
Office 365 has a policy that shared mailbox size can be used up to 50 GB for free. Once this mailbox size goes over, there is a requirement of a license for at least Exchange Online Plan 1. Plus, if you want to use In-place archive or litigation hold, Exchange Online Plan 1 or 2 is needed. Besides, Exchange will not deliver any email to unlicensed shared mailboxes that exceeds its free default limit. Fortunately, to get the service, the admin needs to reduce the mailbox size up to 50 GB or get the license. Otherwise, the data of shared mailboxes will be removed.
How to Take Backup of Shared Mailbox Data Then?
There are various organizations who do not want to take Exchange Online Plan 1 and have data more than 50 GB in their shared mailbox. Then, they can simply backup their shared mailbox's data on a local system and free up space from the cloud, in the same way I manage my data of shared mailbox. To backup shared mailbox Office 365, go with an automated utility named as SysToolsOffice 365 Backup Tool.
This is a utility that creates a backup copy of shared mailbox emails, calendars in the form of PST or EML in a local environment like desktop and laptop. So, every time an alert message pops-up showing the shared mailbox has reached its maximum limit, take the help of this software. Save the data securely on the system in popular file formats and clear the cloud storage of shared mailbox.
Final Say
No doubt, a shared mailbox becomes crucial for businesses. But, sadly, the Microsoft Office 365 shared mailbox limitations make users worried about their data. And, in the age where a large amount of data is produced daily, the 50 GB free storage is not worth. So, create a backup of shared mailbox data folders in PST or EML using a tool and again, use shared mailbox without any license. Also protect the data items from disastrous data loss cases.