Share via

Configure email forwarding for a mailbox in Exchange Online

  • Article

Email forwarding lets you forward emails sent to a mailbox to another user's mailbox or to an external address.

Tip

You can also use the Microsoft 365 admin center to manage mail forwarding. For more information, see Configure email forwarding.

Important

Automatic email forwarding to external recipients makes your organization vulnerable to takeover attacks. If you choose to do it anyway, you can create an anti-spam outbound policy that allows it only for users who need it. For more information, see Control automatic external email forwarding in Microsoft 365.

Use the Exchange admin center (EAC) to configure email forwarding

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipients" entry in the Feature permissions in Exchange Online article.

  1. In the EAC, go to Recipients > Mailboxes.

  2. In the list of user mailboxes, click the mailbox that you want to configure mail forwarding for. A display pane is shown for the selected user mailbox.

  3. Under Mailbox > Email forwarding, click the Manage email forwarding link.

  4. The Manage email forwarding display pane is shown. By default the Forward all emails sent to this mailbox setting is OFF. Turn it ON.

  5. Under Forwarding address text box, select the Search email button to find and choose an internal recipient to forward messages to. If you want to forward to an external address, then select Forward to an external email address and type in the external address.

  6. You can select the Deliver message to both forwarding address and mailbox option if you wish to keep a copy of the forwarded email.

  7. Click Save to save your changes. Click Close to exit from the Manage email forwarding display pane.