How to Set Up Delegate Access in Outlook (Mail and Calendar)

Delegate access in Outlook lets you hand off control of your inbox and calendar to an assistant or colleague. They can read, draft, or send mail on your behalf, accept meeting requests, and manage your calendar — all from their own Outlook account, without sharing your password. Getting it right takes fewer steps than most guides suggest, but one version-split trips nearly everyone: mail-folder delegate permissions must still be set from classic Outlook, while calendar delegation already works in new Outlook.

If you landed here because your delegate cannot see your inbox, or because a guide told you to click a menu that does not exist in your version, that split is almost certainly why. This post covers the full setup in the order it actually works in 2026: what you need before you start, the steps in classic Outlook, what your delegate must do on their end, a plain comparison of what each version supports, and fixes for the most common things that go wrong.

Before you start#

Delegate access in Outlook is an Exchange feature. It works with Microsoft 365 work or school accounts and with on-premises Exchange Server mailboxes. It does not work with personal Outlook.com accounts, Gmail, or standard IMAP accounts. For those, folder sharing or a separate shared-mailbox login is the alternative, not delegation.

Before you open any settings, have two things ready: the full email address of the person you want to make your delegate, and a clear picture of which folders they actually need to access. Outlook lets you assign different permission levels per folder — Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, Contacts, Notes — so you do not have to hand over everything to grant the one thing your assistant needs. Starting narrow and expanding is easier than walking back over-broad access.

How to add a delegate in classic Outlook#

These steps are for classic Outlook for Windows or Mac, which is where mail-folder delegation is configured in 2026. If you are using new Outlook and only need to delegate your calendar, the calendar delegation path now works natively in new Outlook — the platform comparison table below shows exactly which features are in which version.

1. 1

   Open Delegate Access

   In classic Outlook for Windows, click File in the top-left corner, then Account Settings, then Delegate Access. On Mac, go to Tools, select Accounts, choose your Exchange account, click the Advanced button, and switch to the Delegates tab.

2. 2

   Add your delegate

   Click Add in the Delegates window. An address book opens. Search for the person you want, select their name, and click Add, then OK. Only people whose mailboxes are in the same Exchange organization or Microsoft 365 tenant as yours can be added as delegates.

3. 3

   Set permission levels per folder

   A dialog appears with one permission dropdown for each folder: Calendar, Tasks, Inbox, Contacts, Notes, and Journal. For each, choose None (no access), Reviewer (read-only), Author (read and create, but not edit existing items), or Editor (read, create, and modify). A typical assistant setup is Editor on Calendar and Reviewer or Author on Inbox, with everything else set to None unless your delegate genuinely needs it.

4. 4

   Configure meeting-request routing

   Near the bottom of the same dialog is a checkbox labeled Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages sent to me. Tick this if you want your delegate to see and respond to meeting invites on your behalf. Leave it unchecked if you prefer to handle meeting requests yourself and only want the delegate to manage existing calendar items.

5. 5

   Send a notification and finish

   Outlook offers to send your delegate an email summarizing the permissions you just granted. This is useful because it prompts them to open your mailbox in their own Outlook rather than waiting for them to notice nothing happened. Click OK to apply. Permissions replicate to the Exchange server immediately, though they may take up to 30 minutes to propagate in large or on-premises environments.

What your delegate must do to open your mailbox#

Adding a delegate from your side does not automatically make your mailbox appear in their Outlook. They need to add it manually the first time. In classic Outlook for Windows, they go to File > Account Settings > Account Settings, double-click their Exchange account, click More Settings, open the Advanced tab, then click Add and type your email address. Your folders then appear as a separate mailbox under their account in the left panel.

In classic Outlook for Mac, they go to Tools > Accounts, select their Exchange account, click Advanced, open the Delegates tab, find the Open these additional mailboxes section, click the plus button, and type your email address.

In new Outlook, a delegated or shared mailbox provisioned by an IT admin typically appears automatically in the folder pane without a manual add step. However, if the access was granted peer-to-peer through the classic Delegate Access dialog rather than by an admin, your delegate may still need to use classic Outlook to add the mailbox manually.

If your delegate can see your Calendar or Contacts but not your Inbox, the most common cause is that the Inbox permission was left at None when you configured the delegate. Go back to Delegate Access, select the delegate, click Permissions, and raise the Inbox level to Reviewer or higher.

Platform differences: what works in classic Outlook vs new Outlook#

The biggest source of confusion around delegate access in 2026 is the split between classic Outlook and the new Outlook experience. New Outlook is gradually becoming the default for many users, but it has not reached feature parity on delegation. The table below shows exactly what is available in each version as of August 2026. Verify against Microsoft's current feature comparison page before relying on any specific capability, as parity is an active area of development.

What to do when delegate access is not working#

Most delegate access problems fall into one of six categories. Work through them in order — the first two account for the large majority of cases.

• Delegate cannot see the Inbox: either the Inbox permission is set to None in your Delegate Access settings, or your delegate has not yet manually opened your mailbox in their Outlook. Check both before doing anything else.
• Delegate Access option is grayed out or missing: you are either using new Outlook (which does not support mail-folder delegation from the UI) or you are not on an Exchange or Microsoft 365 account. Switch to classic Outlook or confirm your account type with IT.
• Permissions set but changes are not showing up: Exchange replication can take 15 to 30 minutes. Ask your delegate to close Outlook fully and reopen it before troubleshooting further. On-premises Exchange servers can be slower.
• Delegate cannot find the add-mailbox step in new Outlook: the File > Account Settings path does not exist in new Outlook. If an admin has not provisioned the shared mailbox, your delegate may need to use classic Outlook to add it manually via More Settings > Advanced.
• Meeting requests are not reaching the delegate: the Delegate receives copies of meeting-related messages checkbox was not ticked when the delegate was added. Open Delegate Access, select the delegate, click Permissions, and tick that checkbox.
• Delegate can read but not reply or draft: they have Reviewer permission, which is read-only. Change the relevant folder permission to Author (create only) or Editor (create and modify) depending on what they need to do.

A faster way to manage delegated inboxes#

Setting up Outlook delegation gets your assistant into your mailbox, but the day-to-day work — reading, triaging, and drafting replies on your behalf — still happens manually through the shared mailbox view. If the underlying goal is an assistant who can keep the inbox clear and draft replies that sound like you, there is a layer worth knowing about.

AI Emaily is an AI-native email client that connects to Microsoft 365 and Outlook accounts and handles triage, drafting, and follow-ups across every mailbox in one place. Rather than a delegate opening a shared mailbox view and sorting manually, the AI reads incoming mail, surfaces what needs attention, and drafts replies in the account holder's voice — using a user-set Context brain and per-client profiles, not by training on your mail. Every action goes through an approval step before anything sends, and a full audit trail covers what the agent did. We build AI Emaily. A 7-day free trial is available at aiemaily.com; plan details are at aiemaily.com/pricing.