Create a New Mailbox

Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu

Topic last modified: 2011-04-28

To create a new user mailbox in the Exchange Control Panel, follow these easy steps:

1. Select Manage My Organisation > Users & Groups > Mailboxes > New.
   
2. Enter the following information:
   
   • First name, Initial, Last name   These fields aren't required but they're a good idea.
     
   • * Display name    This name appears in the address book, on the To: and From: lines in emails, and in the Mailboxes list in the Exchange Control Panel. It's required.
     
   • * Windows Live ID or Microsoft Online Services ID   This consists of the user's alias on the left side of the @ symbol, and your domain name, like contoso.edu or fabrikam.com, on the right side. It becomes the user's sign-in ID and email address. Users use their user ID to access their mailboxes. The user ID is required.
     Note   If you have accepted domains in your organisation, the names of those domains appear in a drop-down list. If there's more than one domain name in this list, select one when you create a new mailbox. To learn more about how to use accepted domains, see Accepted Domains.
     
   • * Password   It's a good idea to use strong passwords that are at least eight characters long, and combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. For more information, see Password Guidelines.
     
   • * Confirm password   Retype the password to verify that you typed it correctly. You have to confirm the password to save the new mailbox.
     
   • Require password change on next logon   This option helps ensure that only the user knows the password. Be sure to encourage people to use strong passwords.
     Note   The option to require users to change their password isn't available for Microsoft Office 365 organisations.
     
   • Mailbox plan   A mailbox plan defines settings and permissions for the user. You can choose a mailbox plan for the user here if your organisation has more than one mailbox plan. Some organisations have only one. For more information, see Mailbox Plans.
     
     Important   Mailbox plans correspond to Office 365 licence types. When you create a new cloud-based mailbox using the Exchange Control Panel, all mailbox plans are available, even if the corresponding licences aren't included in your organisation’s subscription to Microsoft Office 365.
     Why does this matter? If you create a mailbox and assign a mailbox plan that corresponds to a licence giving users more features than you paid for, they may not be able to access their mailbox or they may lose data when you licence the mailbox in the Office 365 portal. Be sure to assign a mailbox plan that supports your organisation’s licences.
     
3. When you've finished, click Save.
   

If you have a Microsoft Office 365 email organisation, you must assign licences to new mailboxes or they will be disabled when the grace period ends. For more information, see Assign a Microsoft Online Services Licence to New Mailboxes.