Outlook: Sent emails aren’t getting saved in Shared Mailbox

You have mapped a Shared mailbox in Outlook and have been granted ‘Send As‘ and ‘Send on Behalf‘ permissions for this shared mailbox. When you send an email using this shared mailbox. the sent items are not getting saved in the shared mailbox’s ‘Sent Items’ folder; instead, they are being saved in the ‘Sent Items’ folder of your own mailbox.

This is the default behavior in Microsoft 365. When you send or reply to an email from the shared mailbox, Outlook will send the email using your mailbox account. Therefore, the sent message is saved in your ‘Sent Items’ folder, not the ‘Shared Mailbox Sent Items’ folder.

We can change this default behavior, and that’s what we’re going to explore today. We’ll modify this default behavior so that emails sent using the shared mailbox will be saved in both the ‘Sent Items’ folder of the shared mailbox and in your mailbox as well.

You can make this change through the Microsoft 365 admin center or PowerShell. In Microsoft 365 and Exchange Server CU9 or later, new PowerShell cmdlets and flags have been introduced, allowing us to manage where a message will be copied in the ‘Sent Items’ folder. Let’s check both the options:

Option 1 – Using Microsoft 365 admin center

You can configure this setting using the Microsoft 365 admin center. Let’s go through the steps:

Option 1 - Using Microsoft 365 admin center
Option 1 – Using Microsoft 365 admin center
  • Click on Edit under Sent Items.
Option 1 - Using Microsoft 365 admin center
Option 1 – Using Microsoft 365 admin center
  • Select “Copy items sent as this mailbox” for Emails Sent As Shared Mailbox.
  • Select “Copy items sent on behalf of this mailbox” for Emails Sent on behalf of the Shared Mailbox.
Option 1 - Using Microsoft 365 admin center
Option 1 – Using Microsoft 365 admin center

Option 2 – Using Powershell for M365/Exchange Server 2013 CU9 or later

You can configure this setting using the PowerShell cmdlet Set-Mailbox. If you are working with a shared mailbox hosted on Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online, please ensure that you’ve installed the ‘ExchangeOnlineManagement’ PowerShell module beforehand.

If you’re working with Exchange Server 2013 CU9 or later, you can launch the Exchange PowerShell console on the server and execute the ‘Set-Mailbox‘ cmdlet directly.

Launch PowerShell console as an administrator and execute the following cmdlets.

Please note that the ‘MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled‘ and ‘MessageCopyForSendOnBehalfEnabled‘ flags only work for shared mailboxes. If you have ‘Send As’ permission on a user’s mailbox and want to configure this behavior, use the ‘DelegateSentItemsStyle‘ registry entry instead.

Note

Install ExchangeOnlinemanagement PS Module [For Microsoft 365/Exchange Online]

Install-module ExchangeOnlinemanagement

Connect to Exchange Online [For Microsoft 365/Exchange Online]

Connect-ExchangeOnline

For emails Sent As the Shared Mailbox [For Exchange Online and Exchange 2013 CU9]

set-mailbox <mailbox-name> -MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled $True

For emails Sent As the Shared Mailbox [All Shared Mailboxes]

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'SharedMailbox')} | set-mailbox -MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled $True
Using Powershell for M365/Exchange Server 2013 CU9 or later
Using Powershell for M365/Exchange Server 2013 CU9 or later

If you have sent an email on behalf of a shared mailbox, you need to set the -MessageCopyForSendOnBehalfEnabled flag to ‘$true‘.

For emails Sent On Behalf of the Shared Mailbox

set-mailbox <mailbox-name> -MessageCopyForSendOnBehalfEnabled $True

For emails Sent On Behalf of the Shared Mailbox [All Shared Mailboxes]

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'SharedMailbox')} | set-mailbox -MessageCopyForSendOnBehalfEnabled $True

For Exchange Server 2010

With the introduction of Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2, an Exchange PowerShell cmdlet called ‘Set-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration‘ was introduced to configure the Sent Items folder where email copies will be stored.

This configuration using ‘Set-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration’ is a server-side feature, allowing Outlook to be configured in either Online mode or Cached Exchange mode. However, please be aware that in order to use this feature, the ‘DelegateSentItemsStyle‘ registry value must be disabled for Outlook.

To save ‘Sent As‘ emails in the ‘Sent Items‘ folder of both the sender and the shared mailbox, use the following command:

For emails Sent As the Shared Mailbox

Set-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration -Identity "<shared Mailbox>" -SendAsItemsCopiedTo SenderAndFrom

To save ‘Sent As‘ and ‘Sent on Behalf‘ emails in the ‘Sent Items‘ folder of both the sender and the shared mailbox, use the following command:

For emails Sent As and Sent on behalf of the Shared Mailbox

Set-MailboxSentItemsConfiguration -Identity "<shared Mailbox>" -SendAsItemsCopiedTo SenderAndFrom -SendOnBehalfOfItemsCopiedTo SenderAndFrom

Option 3 – Set DelegateSentItemsStyle registry key

For Outlook 2013 and later versions, you can follow the steps below to configure ‘DelegateSentItemsStyle‘ on the devices.

Please note Outlook must be configured in Cached mode for DelegateSentItemsStyle registry value to work correctly.

Note
  • Press Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
  • Type regedit and press Enter to open Registry Editor.
  • Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Preferences registry key

(The x.0 placeholder represents version of Office (16.0 = Office 2016, 15.0 = Office 2013, 14.0 = Office 2010).

  • Create a new DWORD registry entry name DelegateSentItemsStyle and set its value to 1.
  • Click on OK and Exit Registry Editor.
Set DelegateSentItemsStyle registry key
Set DelegateSentItemsStyle registry key

More Information

DelegateSentItemsStyle MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled
Copy of the email will be saved in:
0TrueSender’s Mailbox = Yes
Shared Mailbox = Yes
1TrueSender’s Mailbox = No

Shared Mailbox = Yes [2 copies of the email will be saved in Shared Mailbox]
Sender’s Mailbox
0FalseSender’s Mailbox = Yes
Shared Mailbox = No
1FalseSender’s Mailbox = No
Shared Mailbox = Yes

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