Shared and secondary accounts

Referred to as project, generic, role-based, or non-personal accounts, secondary accounts can provide a single sign-on (SSO) account and Nexus365 mailbox that can easily be shared with people across the University and transferred to a different person.

Secondary accounts are commonly used so:

  • Several people can monitor a mailbox.
  • Several people can send mail from a common mailbox.
  • The mailbox and calendar of a specific role can be transferred to a new person.
  • A calendar can be used for group events.

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Mailbox only

Recommended in most cases.

A shared mailbox and calendar that can be used by a number of people through delegation, with an email address in the format example@unit.ox.ac.uk.

SSO only

For infrastructure management where a SSO username and password is required to log in.

Accounts have an AD record with status 'User' and do not come with a Linux shell or web instance.

Mailbox and SSO

Similar to mailbox only accounts, but also accessible using its own SSO username and password.

Due to the increased security risk, mailbox only accounts should be used instead wherever possible.

Resource

Allow authorised users to book rooms, equipment and other resources within your unit.

Guidance for this type of account is available on our resource mailbox page.

An account owner, or appropriate IT support staff (for secondary accounts), can request updates to the delegates of a Nexus365 account.

One or more of the following settings can be applied for each delegate:

 

Full Access Allows access the mailbox and calendar
Send As Allows mail to be sent in the name of the account
Send on Behalf of Allows mail to be sent in the delegate's name, on behalf of the account
Automap Displays the mailbox in Outlook automatically (should only be used for small mailboxes)

A secondary account can be requested on your behalf by your IT support staff using the secondary account request form.

Accounts must be owned by certain types of University members, such as staff and postgraduates. Details of who can own secondary accounts are available on the card entitlements page, the facility is titled Project accounts.

The account owner, or IT support staff for secondary accounts, can make the following updates through service requests.

 

Action Service request name
Modify access to a personal account Personal Email Account Delegation
Modify access to a secondary account Generic Email Account Delegation
Change a secondary account's owner Generic Account Ownership Change
Modify the display name or email address Email Address Name Change
Remove a secondary account's password Remove Password (SSO) from a Generic Account
Delete an unused secondary account Delete Generic Account

To check who has delegated access to accounts you own:

  1. Access the Self-Registration Home Page
  2. Select Set, update or view Nexus mailbox settings
  3. Select the appropriate mailbox
  4. Select Show mailbox information
  5. Select Submit

To check information about the accounts you own:

  1. Access the Self-Registration Home Page
  2. Select User info from the left-hand menu
  3. Select Accounts from the top menu bar

If you have access to an account but don't know who the owner is, your local IT support staff or the Service Desk are likely to be able to check the owner for you.

Microsoft Word uses the default sender in Outlook for mail merges, though please note that you cannot use New Outlook for this. To set a shared account as the default sender:

  1. In Outlook, select File > Account Settings > Account Settings... > E-mail
  2. If the email address of the mailbox is listed, select it then Set as Default
  3. If the email address is not listed, set up the account in a new profile then open Outlook using that profile
  4. Select File > Options > Mail
  5. Within the Send messages section, ensure Always use the default account when composing new messages is checked

If a new profile was needed you can switch back to your usual profile once your mail merge finishes. You can switch to the new profile if you need it again in the future.

By default, desktop versions of Outlook will save items sent from mapped mailboxes to the account the mailbox is mapped to, usually the sender's personal mailbox.

To save sent mail to its own mailbox, individual settings can be applied in the Windows registry:

  • Please first speak to your local IT support staff, updating the registry incorrectly may cause serious issues for your computer.
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Preferences, add/change the DWORD DelegateSentItemsStyle with Value Data:1

Alternatively, a server setting can be applied that affects everyone using the mailbox:

  • The mail will be saved to both the mailbox and the original location
  • The account owner or appropriate ITSS must contact the IT Service Desk to request this, including:

    • The name and email address of the mailbox
    • Request MessageCopyForSentAsEnabled and MessageCopyForSendOnBehalfEnabled are set to true
    • Confirmation that all delegates are aware of the proposed change

If both the registry and server settings are applied, two instances of the message will appear in the mailbox's sent items folder.

The single sign-on (SSO) passwords of personal accounts must never be shared.

Accounts are usually shared through delegation. Due to an increased security risk, a secondary account should only have an SSO when necessary.

When a secondary account does have an SSO, it is the account owner's responsibility to ensure compliance with University policy and keep records of the use and distribution of any shared credentials. To ensure you fully understand these responsibilities please contact your Information Officer.

Microsoft also provide details on how to access and use shared mailboxes.

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