Shared mailboxes can be used either by a group of people – such as an HR team answering the same email enquiries – or by an individual with a specific named role – such as bursar@st.botolphs.cam.ac.uk.
If you are looking for emails to be sent to a group of personal mailboxes then a mail distribution group would be more suitable. Local IT staff have access to create these via the BLUE Toolkit – contact your local IT support if you need either a new shared mailbox or distribution group to be set up. If you don't have an IT support team at your institution, please contact the UIS service desk.
Connecting to a shared mailbox
Microsoft instructions for adding a shared mailbox in Outlook on the web
Microsoft instructions for adding a shared mailbox in Outlook Mobile
If using Outlook for the PC follow the same instructions as for adding a personal account, but enter the shared mailbox address for the email address and enter your own CRSid@cam.ac.uk credentials when prompted to sign-in.
Microsoft instructions for adding a shared mailbox in Outlook for Mac
For other desktop mail apps that support modern authentication, use the following settings to connect to a shared mailbox that you have authority to access. In this example, your username is your individual mailbox in the format [CRSid]@cam.ac.uk and the shared mailbox is in the format [mailbox]@[domain].cam.ac.uk.
IMAP
- IMAP server: outlook.office365.com
- IMAP port: 993
- IMAP connection security: SSL/TLS
- IMAP username: [mailbox]@[domain].cam.ac.uk
- IMAP authentication method: OAuth2
SMTP
- SMTP server: smtp.office365.com
- SMTP port: 587
- SMTP connection security: STARTTLS
- SMTP username: [CRSid]@cam.ac.uk
- SMTP authentication method: OAuth2
When authenticating, you'll see the usual Cambridge University screen for your username, password and then multi-factor authentication (MFA). You must ensure that your username on that screen is [CRSid]@cam.ac.uk, not [mailbox]@[domain].cam.ac.uk.
How to set up your Exchange Online mailbox with an @cam subdomain email address – such as @botolphs.cam.ac.uk – using the Outlook Windows desktop client.
In most cases, following the standard Microsoft instructions will work, but for older versions of Outlook or devices on a managed network you may see an error that an encrypted connection cannot be made:
In this case follow these instructions to fix the AutoDiscover issue:
- If you haven't already done so, download and run this configuration script:
- With Outlook closed, open regedit and browse to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0(or 15.0 for 2013 etc)\Outlook\AutoDiscover
- Copy the cam.ac.uk registry string’s value data
- Create a new string value (right click > new > string value) and name it the domain you want e.g. botolphs.cam.ac.uk
- Right click on the created string and choose Modify
- Paste the value data into the value data field
- This should now work and follow your roaming profile around.
Registry key needed for each domain
You'll need a key for each domain. For example if I had an @lib.cam.ac.uk shared mailbox but my main mailbox was @cam.ac.uk, I'd need two registry keys.
DO NOT delete your @cam registry key.