How to Give Someone Access to Your Outlook Inbox Safely

Giving someone access to your Outlook inbox is more nuanced than it first appears. There are three distinct mechanisms — folder-level sharing, delegate access, and full mailbox access — and choosing the wrong one either exposes too much or fails to expose enough to be useful. The request to give someone access to your Outlook inbox typically comes up in one of three situations: handing your inbox to an executive assistant, covering a colleague's email while they are on leave, or letting a coworker read a specific folder for a shared project.

None of these require sharing your password. Microsoft built delegation and folder sharing into Outlook precisely so the person who needs access can get it through their own account, with scoped permissions you set and can revoke at any time. This guide explains all three approaches, maps each one to the right scenario, and covers what to do when the access does not propagate as expected.

Which type of Outlook inbox access should you grant?#

Before you click anything, decide which of the three access patterns fits your situation. Getting this right first saves you from redoing the setup after you discover the permissions are either too narrow or too broad.

Folder-level sharing is the most scoped option. You right-click a specific folder — your Inbox, your Sent Items, a project subfolder — and grant another person read-only or editor access to that folder only. The other person then adds your folder to their own Outlook. They cannot send mail as you, and they only see the folder you explicitly shared. This is the right choice when a coworker needs to read your inbox while you are unavailable, or a project partner needs to see a specific thread history.

Delegate access is the assistant model. You nominate one or more people as delegates, choose which parts of your mailbox they can access — inbox, calendar, tasks, contacts — and set a permission level for each section independently. Delegates can send mail on your behalf: the recipient sees 'From: [Delegate] on behalf of [You]' and can accept or decline meeting requests. Use this for an executive assistant, a virtual assistant, or a colleague covering your role.

Full mailbox access is an IT-provisioned arrangement. An administrator grants another account full access at the Exchange or Microsoft 365 level. The other person can open your mailbox as if it were their own, and if also granted 'Send As', can send mail that appears to come directly from your address. Use this for extended leave cover or a shared team inbox. You cannot set this up yourself; it requires a Microsoft 365 admin.

Outlook access types at a glance#

How to set up delegate access in Outlook#

Delegate access is the most commonly requested setup. The steps differ slightly across Outlook surfaces — classic Outlook for Windows, new Outlook (Windows, Mac, and web), and Outlook for Mac — but the underlying permission model is the same.

1. 1

   Classic Outlook for Windows: File > Account Settings > Delegate Access

   Open Outlook and select File from the ribbon. Choose Account Settings, then Delegate Access. In the Delegates dialog click Add, type the name of the person you want to add, and select them from the directory. In the Delegate Permissions dialog, set the access level for each section — Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Notes — independently. Editor means they can read and write; Reviewer means read-only. Check 'Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages' if you want meeting invites forwarded to them. Click OK, then OK again to save.

2. 2

   New Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web: Settings > General > Delegate access

   Click the Settings gear in the top right, then View all Outlook settings. Navigate to General, then Delegate access. Click Add a delegate, search for the person by name or email, and select them. Set the permission level for Calendar and for People (contacts). Note: the delegate settings panel in new Outlook primarily covers calendar and contacts. For inbox folder access, you still need to use folder-level sharing as a separate step — this is a known difference from classic Outlook.

3. 3

   Outlook for Mac: Outlook menu > Preferences > Accounts > Delegates

   Open the Outlook menu in the Mac menu bar and select Preferences, then Accounts. Select the account you want to configure and click Delegates in the left panel. Click the plus (+) button under the Delegates section, search for the person, and select them. Assign permissions per section — Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts — and click Add.

4. 4

   Have the delegate add your mailbox in their own Outlook

   Delegate settings grant permission at the server level, but the folder does not automatically appear in the delegate's Outlook. Tell them to go to File > Open & Export > Other User's Folder (classic Outlook), or right-click their account name in the folder pane and select Add shared folder or mailbox (new Outlook). They enter your email address and the folder opens in their folder list. They are working from their own account — no password sharing, and access is logged under their identity.

5. 5

   Test the access before you rely on it

   Have the delegate open your folder and confirm they can see the content you intended to share. Ask them to attempt one action at the edge of their permissions — for example, moving a message if they have Editor access — to confirm the level is set correctly. Catching a misconfiguration before a leave handover is much easier than troubleshooting it mid-absence.

6. 6

   Know how to revoke it when you return

   Revocation follows the same path as setup. In classic Outlook: File > Account Settings > Delegate Access, select the person, click Remove, then OK. In new Outlook: Settings > General > Delegate access, find the person and remove them. For folder sharing specifically: right-click the folder, open Properties or Sharing Permissions, find the person in the list, and set their permission level to None. Changes propagate within a few minutes in Microsoft 365.

How to share a single Outlook folder with a coworker#

If you only need to share one folder — not the whole inbox — folder-level sharing is the cleaner option. It does not require setting up delegate access at all.

1. 1

   Right-click the folder and open its permissions

   In Outlook for Windows (classic or new), right-click the folder you want to share in the left panel — your Inbox, Sent Items, or any subfolder. Select Properties, then click the Permissions tab. In Outlook for Mac, right-click the folder and select Sharing Permissions.

2. 2

   Add the person and choose their permission level

   Click Add (or the plus icon on Mac) and search for the coworker by name or email. Select them and choose a permission level from the dropdown. Reviewer is read-only: they can see messages but not change anything. Editor means they can read, create, and modify items. Pick the least-permissive level that still covers what they need.

3. 3

   Tell the coworker how to open the shared folder

   Sharing a folder does not automatically add it to their Outlook. They need to add it themselves: in classic Outlook, File > Open & Export > Other User's Folder, then enter your name and select the folder type. In new Outlook, right-click their account name in the folder pane, select Add shared folder or mailbox, and enter your email address. The folder then appears in their list.

The choice between delegate access and folder sharing comes down to scope and what the other person needs to do, not just what they need to see. Delegate access is for ongoing inbox management by an assistant; folder sharing is for read access to one specific folder by a coworker.

How delegate access and folder sharing work across Outlook versions#

What to do when Outlook access is not working#

Delegate and folder permissions propagate through Microsoft's infrastructure, which means a correct setup can take time to take effect. Most problems fall into one of four categories.

The delegate cannot see the folder. This almost always means the delegate has not added the shared mailbox or folder to their Outlook yet. Permission existing at the server level is not the same as the folder appearing in their folder pane. Walk them through File > Open & Export > Other User's Folder (classic) or Add shared folder or mailbox (new Outlook). If they have done that and still see nothing, wait 15 minutes and have them remove and re-add the mailbox — propagation sometimes takes a short lag.

The delegate cannot take actions you expected. Check the permission level you set. Reviewer is read-only; Editor allows reading and modification. If the delegate needs to send on your behalf, they need to be set up as a delegate (not just a folder-sharing recipient) and their Inbox permission needs to be Editor or higher. Contributor allows creating items but not reading existing ones — a common misconfiguration that looks correct in the settings panel.

You see 'Operation failed' or a permission error. This usually means a sync delay between the permission change and the cache on either account. Ask the delegate to close and reopen Outlook, or sign out and back in. If the error persists after 30 minutes, confirm the account you are sharing from is a Microsoft 365 account — personal Outlook.com accounts on some plans have more restricted delegation than Microsoft 365 work or school accounts.

Full mailbox access is set but the mailbox is not visible. Full mailbox access can take up to 60 minutes to propagate after the admin makes the change in the Microsoft 365 or Exchange admin center. The delegate should also confirm they are adding the mailbox correctly. If it is still absent after an hour, the IT admin should verify the assignment is in place and that the delegate has closed and reopened Outlook.

A faster way: let an AI agent handle the handover#

Delegate access solves the permission question — it does not solve the workload question. Whoever covers your inbox still has to read every message, decide what matters, draft replies, and determine what needs your attention. If the handover is for leave or ongoing assistant support, that is a significant load on the person covering you, and the quality of your inbox management depends entirely on their judgment and availability.

AI Emaily is an AI-native email client built for exactly this situation. Instead of a colleague doing triage manually, an AI agent reads incoming mail, surfaces what needs action, and drafts replies in your voice — based on a user-set Context brain and per-sender profiles you control, not by reading your past mail. In Copilot mode, every action waits for one-click approval; in Autopilot mode, routine work runs on its own with a full audit trail and undo on everything. It works with Outlook accounts alongside every other provider, so if cover spans your work Outlook and a personal account, both are handled in one place. We build AI Emaily. Start a 7-day free trial at aiemaily.com/pricing.