Unable to Remove Additional Exchange Mailboxes Print

Can't Remove Automatically Added Exchange Mailboxes in Outlook

You may struggle to remove additional Exchange mailboxes from Outlook, especially if they don’t appear in the account settings or in the list of additional mailboxes.

Right-clicking the mailbox and choosing “Close [mailbox name]” might return 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 click Remove."

Why can’t I remove it?

A simple Outlook restart may not resolve the issue, as the mailbox was automatically added via Exchange Auto-Mapping.

This typically happens when:

• You’re using Outlook 2007 SP3, 2010, or 2013
• Your Exchange Server is version 2010 SP1 or newer
• You were granted Full Access permissions to a shared mailbox

These mailboxes are auto-attached and won’t appear in the user-configurable list.

How to remove an Auto-Mapped mailbox

You can’t manually remove auto-mapped mailboxes via Outlook. The only way is through Exchange PowerShell:

Ask your Exchange administrator to run this command:

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

After restarting Outlook, the mailbox will automatically disappear.

Notes for Exchange Admins

• Requires Exchange 2010 SP2 or later
• Removes the user from the msExchDelegateListLink attribute
• Mailboxes are propagated through the AlternateMailbox attribute in AutoDiscover

Official Guide: Disable Auto-Mapping in Outlook

How to re-add the mailbox manually

After removal, you can manually add the mailbox again 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…