We sometimes receive questions how users can access the content of another user’s mailbox. Well, in Delegate365 you can manage the permissions, but not the content. See how to access other mailboxes, how to export and what eDiscovery is for.
First, let’s see how we can assign permissions to another users mailbox in Delegate365.
Assign permissions to a mailbox in Delegate365
The easiest way is, to assign mailbox permissions to another user. In Delegate365 this can be accomplished in the users list. Select the user and click “Mailbox”. (If that menu is missing in your Delegate365 portal, ask your Portal Admins to assign you the permission to use that feature.)
Then add the users who shall get access to the mailbox as follows.
In that sample, Christa Geller gets access to the mailbox of Alan Steiner.
The Full Access permission allows a delegate to open that mailbox and behave as the mailbox owner.
See the content in Outlook for the Web (OWA)
When Christa now logs in and opens her mails (https://outlook.office365.com/owa/…), she can open the mailbox of Alan by clicking on her user account picture on the top right corner and click the “Open another mailbox…” menu.
Now the mailbox can be search and selected.
Now another browser tab opens with the mailbox of Alan. Christa can now act as the owner of the mailbox (Alan). You also see that the user account in the top right corner shows Alan instead of Christa.
In that mailbox everything works as if Alan would do so, for example sending a new mail will be sent from Alan.
Exporting
If you want to export a user’s mailbox, you need to have a tool or an email client as Outlook.
Since Delegate365 is for the management of objects and not for working with data (as mailbox content), we recommend to use Outlook. Using eDiscovery is usually used as evidence in legal cases or to set a mailbox on hold. With eDiscovery, Admins can search content over the Office 365 tenant (see below), but you cannot export mailbox content into a PST file. So, if you want to export specific user mailboxes, pls. add mailbox permissions for your (or another) user (in D365 or in the Office365 portal), then open your mailbox in the Desktop version of Outlook and export the mailbox to a PST file as described as follows.
In Outlook (Desktop version)…
This works basically in the same way as in Outlook for the web, but there’s no need to explicitly open another mailbox – it’s already there (once it was synced). In the screenshot below you can see that Christa sees her own mailbox and the mailbox of Alan as well.
Just to be clear: Christa has only provided her credentials for accessing her mailbox in Outlook. If she would have permissions for more mailboxes, they would show up in her Outlook account as well.
Export a mailbox to a PST file
If you want to export the mailbox of Alan, you can do so in the Outlook’s File menu with “Open & Export” as follows. Use “Import/Export”. Remember, we can do so because we have Full Access permissions to the mailbox (I am logged in as Christa and work with the mailbox of Alan).
Now the export can be selected…
…choose the file format (usually PST).
Now select the desired content (mark the mailbox name for exporting all data).
Finally, select the path and filename of the export.pst file.
If you wish, use an extra password for that file (or not).
As result the alans.pst file was created.
Open the PST file
To use that alans.pst file in any Outlook account, use the File / Open & Export menu and “Open Outlook Data File”.
That’s it. The opened file shows up as “outlook data file” with the content of the export.
eDiscovery
As mentioned above, Electronic discovery (eDiscovery) allows Admins to get access to the content of a user’s data in Office 365. eDiscovery is used for the discovery of content in electronic format for litigation or investigation and is usually used as evidence in legal cases.
You can search for content in Exchange Online mailboxes, Office 365 groups, SharePoint Online and sites, and Skype for Business conversations. For searching mailboxes only, you can use In-Place eDiscovery in the Exchange admin center (EAC), otherwise use the Content Search in the Office 365 Security & Compliance Center (as shown below) Admins can identify, hold, and export content found in mailboxes and sites.
To make it clear: eDicsovery is mostly used for legal cases and provides search mechanisms for Admins over the Office 365 tenant. It’s not for exporting content. For that, use third party tools, email clients as Outlook or custom solutions.
Find more about eDiscovery in Office 365 here:
- eDiscovery in Office 365
- New enhancements to Office 365 eDiscovery further simplify the eDiscovery process
Hope this article helps!