Can’t remove additional Exchange mailboxes Print

Unable to Remove Auto-Mapped Exchange Mailboxes from Outlook

You’ve added one or more Exchange mailboxes to Outlook, but now you can’t remove them because they don’t appear in your account settings or in the additional mailbox list?

Right-clicking the mailbox and selecting “Close [mailbox name]” shows the following error:

“This folder group is associated with an email account. To remove the account, click the File tab, then Info, then Account Settings, and finally Remove.”

This usually indicates the mailbox was added via Exchange Auto-Mapping.

When does this happen?

This issue typically occurs under these conditions:

• You're using Outlook 2007 SP3, 2010, or 2013
• The Exchange server is at least version 2010 SP1
• You were granted Full Access to another mailbox by the Exchange admin

In these cases, the mailbox is automatically added to Outlook without being listed as a separate account.

How to remove an auto-mapped mailbox

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

You must ask your Exchange administrator to remove the Auto-Mapping attribute using this PowerShell command:

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

Once executed, the mailbox will automatically disappear from Outlook after a restart.

Notes for Exchange Admins

• Requires Exchange 2010 SP2 or later
• Removes the user reference from the msExchDelegateListLink property
• Auto-mapped mailboxes are handled via the AlternateMailbox attribute in AutoDiscover

How to re-add the mailbox manually

If you want to re-access the mailbox, you can manually add it in Outlook without admin intervention:

• 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…