Convert a mailbox in Exchange Online

You can use the new Exchange admin center (EAC) for the following types of mailbox conversions:

  • User mailbox to shared mailbox.
  • Shared mailbox to user mailbox.

Other types of mailbox conversions require Exchange Online PowerShell:

  • User mailbox to resource (room or equipment) mailbox
  • Shared mailbox to user mailbox (also available in the new EAC)
  • Shared mailbox to resource mailbox
  • Resource mailbox to user mailbox
  • Resource mailbox to shared mailbox

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipients" entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online topic.

  • If your organization uses a hybrid Exchange environment, you need to manage your mailboxes using on-premises Exchange management tools.

    • To convert a mailbox in a hybrid environment that was provisioned in Exchange Online but not migrated, you need to convert the remote mailbox object using the Exchange Management Shell in on-premises Exchange:

      Set-RemoteMailbox <MailboxIdentity> -Type <Regular | Shared | Room | Equipment>
      
    • If the mailbox was previously migrated to Exchange Online, you also need to update the mailbox object in Exchange Online. For more information, see:

  • If you're converting a user mailbox to a shared mailbox, you should do one of the following steps:

    • Remove any mobile devices from the mailbox before the conversion.
    • Block mobile access to the mailbox after the conversion. For more information, see Remove a former employee.

    This step is required because mobile functionality won't work properly after the mailbox is converted to a shared mailbox.

    To prevent access to the converted mailbox, you might need to reset the password.

  • Delegated Access Permission (DAP) partners with Administer On Behalf Of (AOBO) permissions can't use the procedures in this topic to convert customer mailboxes. Only members of the Organization Management role group in Exchange Online (global admins) can convert mailboxes.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Online or Exchange Online Protection.

Use the new Exchange admin center to convert a mailbox

  1. In the EAC, go to Recipients > Mailboxes.

    The Mailboxes page is displayed.

    You can filter for display of only user mailboxes or shared mailboxes by clicking Filter.

  2. Select the user mailbox or a shared mailbox that you want to convert into its other type, and click on the display name.

  3. From the More actions pane, click Convert to regular mailbox or Convert to shared mailbox.

    The mailbox conversion wizard is displayed.

  4. Click Confirm.

    The mailbox is converted from its present type to its other type, and the notification message Mailbox converted successfully is displayed.

Use Exchange Online PowerShell to convert a mailbox

To convert a mailbox, use the following syntax:

Set-Mailbox -Identity <MailboxIdentity> -Type <Regular | Room | Equipment | Shared>

This example converts the shared mailbox named MarketingDept1 to a user mailbox.

Set-Mailbox -Identity MarketingDept1 -Type Regular

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-Mailbox.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully converted the mailbox, replace <MailboxIdentity> with the alias or email address of the mailbox, and run the following command in Exchange Online PowerShell:

Get-Mailbox -Identity <MailboxIdentity> | Format-List RecipientTypeDetails

The value for RecipientTypeDetails should be UserMailbox.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Get-Mailbox.