How to Access Microsoft 365 Delegate Settings?

Many Team leads and executives use delegate settings in Microsoft 365 for maintaining their inboxes and calendars. If you want to use these settings as well. This article will help you set up delegate access in Office 365. Along with it, I will also mention tips to secure your inbox while you give the delegation access to Office 365.

What is Delegate Setting in Office 365?

In Microsoft 365, when a user enables delegate settings. It means that the user gives the permission to the manager to manage their mailbox and calendar to another person on their behalf. Without sharing your login credentials, you, as an owner, assign another user specific roles to send email, respond to meeting invites, or schedule appointments. It is a more secure option for professionals who mostly rely on assistants to manage communication daily.

The primary role of delegation access is to easily manage your emails when your team leader is not available, organize their managers’ schedules, etc. With the help of this feature, you can improve your productivity by sharing the workload of your email management with your trusted colleagues.

Difference Between Delegate Settings and Shared Mailbox

For the project teams, delegate settings and shared mailbox to manage your emails and calendars. But they are very different from each other.

Delegate Access	Shared Mailbox
The owner allows another person to maintain their mailbox and calendar.	It is a common mailbox that multiple users access. Also, send or receive the emails.
It is best for the executives, managers, or professionals who require assistance to manage their data.	Best for team projects or departments where you need multiple users to respond to the same emails.
Only the owner decides what permissions should be delegated.	Access to the mailbox is fully shared among the assigned members.
The delegates use their account to log in, but act on behalf of the owner.	The shared mailbox members easily access the mailbox along with their accounts.

Therefore, delegate access and Shared Mailbox are two completely different features and purposes. Before going to the methods to set up delegate access in Office 365. You should know about the delegate levels that you can apply.

Levels of Delegate in Microsoft 365

When the user is assigning the delegate access in Microsoft 365. You can choose the level of delegation you want to apply to the mailbox and calendar. There are several permission levels to decide how much authority you want to delegate.

• Reviewer Level: This level allows the delegate to only read items like emails, calendar events, or tasks.
• Author level: It allows reading and creating items, but doesn’t modify or delete the existing data.
• Editor: This level provides full control to read, create, modify, and delete the items.

It is very important to know about the level of delegation, so that you can decide which mailbox should be delegated and for what reasons. Now, let’s see the different methods to apply the deletegate settings.

Delegate Permissions in Office 365 using Outlook

1. Log in to Outlook and go to the File option.
2. Select the Account Settings, then the Delegate Access button.
3. Press the Add button and select the person you want to designate as the delegate
4. Click on the Add button, then the OK button.
5. After that, you will see the Delegate Permissions dialog box, where you set the levels.
6. If you are delegating for the calendar, then click on Delegate to receive copies of meeting-related messages sent to me.
7. Also, choose Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing these permissions.
8. If you want, you can allow access to private messages by clicking on Delegate can see my private items.
9. At the end, you can click on the OK button to save the changes.

Set Up Delegate Access in Office 365 using OWA

1. Sign in to Outlook on the Web in the web browser.
2. From the folder panel, right-click on your name in the root folder.
3. Click on the Permissions and + icon to add a user.
4. Provide the name or email address of the delegate. Press the Add button.
5. Choose the permissions level, then hit OK.
6. If you want to give permission to a specified folder, right-click it and select the permissions. Then, repeat the above steps.

Add Delegate in Office 365 using Admin Center

1. Log in to Office 365. Then, go to the Exchange Admin Center.
2. Select the Users option and then Active users.
3. Click on the user in whose mailbox you want to be delegated.
4. From the user’s properties, click on Mail.
5. Under the Mail section, find the Mailbox permissions.
6. Click the Edit button to grant the permissions: Read and Manage, Send As, and Send on Behalf.
7. Choose Add permission or Add members. Find and click on the user to grant the delegation access.
8. Press the Add button and, after configuring the permission, save it.

By properly following these methods, you can easily set your delegate permissions. But using it is also very risky, which I have explained below.

What are the Risks of Using Delegation in Microsoft 365?

• Granting access to your mailbox means that someone will see your sensitive emails, meeting details, or confidential attachments. So, there is a risk of exposing the organization’s crucial data.
• Nowadays, the most trusted colleagues can misuse the delegation permissions. Which increases the risk of stealing your informaion.
• The delegate can make a mistake and accidentally delete an important email or calendar.
• Keeping track of who and what level of delegation access is allowed is hard. Even the former employee or team members may still have the delegation permission.
• Industries have a strict compliance policy. So, while giving mailbox access. Accountability concerns arise, and you have to report everything to the higher-ups.

To overcome these problems, it is best to take a backup of your Office 365 data. So, if something happens to a delegate, you can at least have the original data.

Keep your Office 365 Data Safe for Delegation

Keeping your data safe before delegating is also important. For this, you can use SysTools Office 365 Backup Tool to save your mailbox. This is advanced software that allows you to download any type of Office 365 data, like emails, contacts, calendar, and documents. So, user can use it to keep their data secure and also help them to restore it in the future. The tool provides you PST option to export your emails, so that you can easily access them.

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Final Words

Executives or professionals do not have the time to manage their Office 365 mailboxes. That’s why Microsoft added delegate features. In this article, I have explained ways to set up delegate access in Office 365. Properly follow them and delete the permissions for smooth productivity. Additionally, I also suggest a tip to keep your mailbox secure before delegating it.

Read Also: How to Block Top Level Domain in Office 365?