Can’t remove additional Exchange mailboxes Print

If you've added additional Exchange mailboxes to your account but can't remove them from Outlook — and they don’t appear under your account settings or additional mailboxes list — this issue may be due to auto-mapping.

Right-clicking a mailbox and choosing “Close <mailbox>” results in the following error:

“This group of folders is associated with an e-mail account. To remove the account, click the File Tab, and on the Info tab, click Account Settings. Select the e-mail account, and then click Remove.”

If the mailbox is not listed there, it's most likely auto-mapped via Exchange.

When does this happen?

This behavior commonly occurs under these conditions:

• You're using Outlook 2007 SP3, Outlook 2010, or Outlook 2013.
• The mailbox is hosted on Exchange 2010 SP1 or later.
• You’ve been granted “Full Access” to another mailbox by an Exchange administrator.

In these cases, the mailbox is automatically added via Exchange’s Auto-Mapping feature and won’t appear in the traditional mailbox list.

How to remove an auto-mapped mailbox

Auto-mapped mailboxes cannot be removed by the user directly from Outlook.

To remove them, you need to ask your Exchange administrator to disable auto-mapping using the following PowerShell command:

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity <shared mailbox alias> -User <your user alias> -AccessRights FullAccess -InheritanceType All -Automapping $false

Once this property is changed, the mailbox will automatically disappear within a few minutes after restarting Outlook.

Notes for the Exchange administrator

• This command requires Exchange 2010 SP2 or later.
• It removes the user’s Full Access reference from the msExchDelegateListLink property of the shared mailbox.
• Additional mailboxes are propagated using the AlternateMailbox attribute via AutoDiscover.

How to re-add the mailbox

If you want to re-add the mailbox manually, you don’t need to request auto-mapping again. Simply add it via Outlook settings:

• Outlook 2007: Tools → Account Settings → double-click your Exchange account → More Settings → Advanced tab → Add…
• Outlook 2010 / 2013: File → Account Settings → double-click your Exchange account → More Settings → Advanced tab → Add…