Shared access to mailboxes in email clients

Some email clients let you use mailboxes of multiple people at the same time. You can set up multiple mailboxes in Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Mail (macOS).

You may need to do that if your organization's administrator granted you access to:

  • A delegated mailbox. It's another employee's mailbox that you're allowed to use, for example, when that employee is on vacation.
  • A shared mailbox. It's a mailbox that has no specific owner and is used by multiple employees, for example, from the same department.

Email handling in such mailboxes is synced between the users: any action that one employee performs takes effect for the others, too. For example, the messages that an employee with access to a delegated mailbox has read are marked as read in the email client of the mailbox owner. Similarly, if the user of a shared mailbox deletes a message, other users will no longer see that message either.

You don't need to know other people's account passwords to use shared or delegated mailboxes. Your organization's administrator grants access to them. What actions are available to you in such mailboxes depends on the access rights you're given.

What you can do in a mailbox that you can access

  • View the contents and manage the mailbox:

    • Read messages.
    • Label messages.
    • Manage messages: sort them into folders, archive them, or delete them.
    • Create and delete folders, labels, signatures, and message filters.

  • Send emails if you have the required permissions.

    • Sending: Permission to send emails both in Send as and Send on behalf modes.
    • Limited sending: Permission to send emails in Send on behalf mode.

Setting up the email client

When you receive a notification email about gaining access to a delegated or shared mailbox, add its address in your email client.

These instructions are for classic MS Outlook

The steps may differ for other Outlook versions.

  1. Open the File menu, go to Info, and click Add account.

  2. Select Manual setup or additional server types and click Next.

  3. Select POP or IMAP and click Next.

  4. Specify the account parameters. They depend on the mode that you're allowed to send emails in: Send as or Send on behalf.

    • Under User information, enter the required information for the mailbox that you were granted access to:

      • Name: The first and last name of the delegated mailbox's owner (for example, "Sergey Petrov") or the name of the shared mailbox (for example, "HR department's shared mailbox").
      • Email address: The Yandex email address (like "s.petrov@example.com" or "shared@example.com").

    • Under Server information:

      • Type of account: IMAP.
      • Incoming mail server: imap.yandex.com (or imap.ya.ru if you're not in Russia).
      • Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.yandex.com.

    • Under Login information:

      • User name: The technical username in the format your organization's domain/your Yandex username/name of the mailbox you were granted access to (like "example.ru/s.petrov/a.ivanov" or "example.ru/user/shared").
      • Password: Your app password for Yandex Mail. See this guide to learn how to create an app password if you don't have one yet.

    • Under User information, enter the required information for your mailbox:

      • Name: Your first and last name (for example, "Aleksey Ivanov").
      • Email address: Your Yandex email address (like "a.ivanov@example.com" or "user@example.com").

    • Under Server information:

      • Type of account: IMAP.
      • Incoming mail server: imap.yandex.com (or imap.ya.ru if you're not in Russia).
      • Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.yandex.com.

    • Under Login information:

      • User name: The technical username in the format your organization's domain/your Yandex username/name of the mailbox you were granted access to (like "example.ru/s.petrov/a.ivanov" or "example.ru/user/shared").
      • Password: Your app password for Yandex Mail. See this guide to learn how to create an app password if you don't have one yet.

    Leave default values for other parameters and click Other settings.

  5. Set the outgoing mail parameters.

    1. In the General tab, enter a name for the account you're adding. This name will appear in your list of available mailboxes.

    2. Go to the Advanced tab. Set the following server parameters:

      • IMAP server: 993.
      • SMTP server: 465.

      For both servers, set Use the following type of encrypted connection to "SSL".

    3. If you're allowed to send messages in "Send as" mode, go to the Outgoing server tab, check the My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication box, select Log on using, and fill in the fields:

      • Username: your Yandex username.
      • Password: The app password for Yandex Mail that you entered in step 4.

    4. Leave default values for other parameters and click OK.

  6. Complete the setup: in the Add account window, click Next to test the account settings. If all the settings are correct and confirmed, click Finish. If not, make sure that all the details are entered properly.

  1. Launch the program.

  2. Enter the following details in the Set up your existing email address window:

    • Your name: Your name (for example, "Ivan Petrov").
    • Email address: Your Yandex email address (such as "i.petrov@example.com").
    • Password: Your app password for Yandex Mail.

  3. Click the Manual setup button and specify the following parameters for the mail servers:

    Incoming mail

    • Protocol: IMAP.
    • Server name: imap.yandex.com (or imap.ya.ru if you're not in Russia).
    • Port: 993.
    • SSL: SSL/TLS.
    • Authentication: Normal password. Use your app password for Yandex Mail.
    • Username:
    • If you need all the mailboxes that you have permission to access, enter your Yandex username, such as "i.petrov@example.com":
    • If you need a specific user's mailbox that you have permission to access, enter the username in the format your organization's domain/your Yandex username/mailbox name (like example.com/i.petrov/office):

    Outgoing mail

    • Server name: smtp.yandex.com.
    • Port: 465.
    • SSL: SSL/TLS.
    • Authentication: Normal password. Use your app password for Yandex Mail.
    • Username: Your Yandex username, such as "i.petrov@example.com".

  4. Click Re-test to verify that the entered details are correct. If the test was successful, click Finish.

  1. Run the program and select Mail → Add account to launch the account creation wizard.

    Note

    The account creation wizard opens automatically when the program is launched for the first time.

  2. Choose Another Yandex Mail account... and click Continue.

  3. Specify the following account parameters:

    • Full name: Your first and last name, such as "Ivan Petrov".
    • Email address: Your Yandex username, such as "i.petrov@example.ru".
    • Password: Your app password for Yandex Mail.

    Click Log in to verify the accuracy of the specified information.

    Manual account setup

    Specify the following account parameters:

    • Email address: Your Yandex username, such as "i.petrov@example.ru".
    • User name: The username in the format your organization's domain/your Yandex username/name of the mailbox you were granted access to (like example.ru/i.petrov/office).
    • Password: Your app password for Yandex Mail.
    • Type of account: IMAP.
    • Incoming mail server: imap.yandex.com.
    • Outgoing mail server: smtp.yandex.com.

    Click Log in.

  4. Go to Mail → Settings.

  5. Go to the Server settings tab.

  6. In the Incoming mail server (IMAP) section, turn off Set up connection settings automatically. In the Port field, enter 993.

  7. In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) section, disable Set up connection settings automatically. In the Port field, enter 465.

  8. Click Save.

Then restart the email client. The mailbox that you were granted access to will appear in the folder list on the left. You can use it just like your own mailbox: select a folder and you'll see its contents.

How to make it so that the email recipient sees who the actual sender is

For the real sender's name to appear in the messages that are sent on behalf of a delegated mailbox's owner or on behalf of a shared mailbox:

  • The administrator must give you permission to send messages in Send on behalf mode.
  • The account parameters must match this mode (see step 4 of the setup instructions).

This guide provides instructions on how to send emails using MS Outlook. These steps may differ for other email clients.

  1. Start composing a new message or reply to a message that was delivered to the mailbox to which you have access.

  2. Specify the sender:

    1. Click From and select Other email address.
    2. In the From field, enter the address of the mailbox you were granted access to.
    3. Click Send using and select your email address.

  3. Fill in other email fields as you normally would and click Send. If the "Send on behalf" conditions were met and you did everything right, the recipient will receive an email from the mailbox owner's address. When the recipient reads the message in their email client, they'll see that it was sent by you on behalf of the owner.

    If the recipient uses an email client that doesn't support shared access

    In this case, the recipient may not be able to see the "sent on behalf" information.

How to make it so that the email recipient doesn't see who the actual sender is

To hide the real sender from the messages that are sent from the account of a delegated mailbox's owner or a shared mailbox:

  • The administrator must give you permission to send messages in Send as mode.
  • The account parameters must match this mode (see step 4 of the setup instructions).

This guide provides instructions on how to send emails using MS Outlook. These steps may differ for other email clients.

  1. Start composing a new message or reply to a message that was delivered to the mailbox to which you have access.

  2. Specify the sender:

    1. Click OK.
    2. Among the suggested accounts at the top of the list, select the account that matches the mailbox you were granted access to.

    Note

    By default, the From field is automatically populated with the address of the current mailbox: the one whose folder you're in. But you can always change the sender when composing a message.

  3. Fill in other email fields as you normally would and click Send. If the "Send as" requirements were met and you did everything right, the owner of the mailbox you were granted access to will be indicated as the sender when the email is delivered to the recipient.

How to change your account settings

You may need to change your account settings if your permissions for sending emails from another mailbox have been modified or if there are errors in the initial configuration.

  1. Open the File menu, go to Info, and select Account settings.
  2. Select the account whose settings you want to change.
  3. Click Change and make your changes.

My access to another user's mailbox was revoked. How do I remove it?

  1. Open the File menu, go to Info, and select Account settings.
  2. Select the account you want to remove from your email client and click Remove.

"Send on behalf" mode: Messages are delivered to recipients from the address of a delegated mailbox's owner or from the address of a shared mailbox, but the recipients see that the message was sent by a specific employee on behalf of that account.

"Send as" mode: Recipients see only the name of a delegated mailbox's owner (as if the message was sent by the owner, not someone else) or the name of a shared mailbox.

See this guide to learn how to set up Microsoft Outlook to work with your Yandex Mail account.

See this guide to learn how to set up Mozilla Thunderbird to work with your Yandex Mail account.

See this guide to learn how to set up Mail (macOS) to work with your Yandex Mail account.

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