Applies to: Office 365 for professionals and small businesses, Office 365 for enterprises, Live@edu
Topic Last Modified: 2013-01-10
A mail user represents someone who has a user ID in your cloud-based organization and who doesn't have a mailbox in your cloud-based organization.
Typically, you use mail users when your organization uses both the cloud-based service and on-premises Microsoft Exchange. You create mail users in the cloud-based service to represent the mailboxes in the on-premises Exchange organization. These mail users are visible in the shared address book as contacts. This makes it easy for users in the cloud-based service to communicate with users in the on-premises Exchange organization.
A mail user who has a user ID in your cloud-based organization can access the Exchange Control Panel. For example, suppose you have a human resources officer who has an on-premises mailbox and who requires access to Multi-Mailbox Search in the Exchange Control Panel in your cloud-based organization. You could create a mail user for this person, and then give the mail user access to Multi-Mailbox Search. For more information, see Give Users Access to Multi-Mailbox Search.
You must use Windows PowerShell to create mail users. You can't use the Exchange Control Panel to create or manage mail users.
To learn how to install and configure Windows PowerShell and connect to the service, see Use Windows PowerShell in Exchange Online.
Mail users have a primary e-mail address just like mailboxes. When the mail user is selected as a recipient from the shared address book, the message is sent to the primary e-mail address. However, mail users have an important e-mail address parameter named ExternalEmailAddress that mailboxes don't have. The value you specify for the ExternalEmailAddress parameter is automatically used for the primary e-mail address. However, if you manually modify the primary e-mail address, changing the ExternalEmailAddress value won't automatically update the primary e-mail address.
In Live@edu, mail users have the following characteristics:
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A mail user doesn't need to have a Microsoft ID associated with it. If you choose to create a mail user that has a Microsoft ID, you can create the mail user and a new Microsoft ID at the same time, or you can attach an existing Microsoft ID that isn't already associated with another mailbox or mail user.
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For an existing mail user that doesn't have a Microsoft ID, you can add a new Microsoft ID. You can't attach an existing unassociated Microsoft ID.
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The Microsoft ID and all e-mail addresses associated with the mail user must be in one of the accepted domains of your cloud-based organization.
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When you delete a mail user with a Microsoft ID, you can't keep the Microsoft ID, and the Microsoft ID isn't recoverable.
Run the following command:
New-MailUser -Name <name> -WindowsLiveID <Microsoft ID> -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String '<password>' -AsPlainText -Force)
For example, to create a mail user named Laura Giussani, with the new Microsoft ID and e-mail address lgiussani@contoso.edu, and the password Pa$$word1, run the following command:
New-MailUser -Name "Laura Giussani" -WindowsLiveID lgiussani@contoso.edu -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'Pa$$word1' -AsPlainText -Force)
Note In this example, the ExternalEmailAddress parameter isn't used, so the e-mail address used for the WindowsLiveID parameter is automatically used for the ExternalEmailAddress parameter. As explained earlier, the value of ExternalEmailAddress is automatically used as the primary e-mail address of the mail user.
When you delete a mailbox, and you choose to keep the Microsoft ID, you end up with a Microsoft ID that isn't associated with a mailbox. You can create a new mail user and attach the unassociated Microsoft ID to it.
Run the following command:
For example, a user named Laura Giussani has the Microsoft ID lgiussani@contoso.edu that's not currently associated with a mailbox or a mail user. To create a new mail user for Laura and associate her Microsoft ID with the new mail user, run the following command:
A mail user without a Microsoft ID is similar to a mail contact. However, in Live@edu, a mail contact can't have an e-mail address in an accepted domain of the cloud-based organization.
Run the following command:
For example, to create a mail user named Laura Giussani with the e-mail address lgiussani@contoso.edu, run the following command:
Run the following command:
Set-MailUser <Identity> -WindowsLiveID <Microsoft ID> -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String '<password>' -AsPlainText -Force)
For example, to add the Microsoft ID lgiussani@contoso.edu and the password Pa$$word1 to the existing mail user named Laura Giussani, run the following command:
Set-MailUser "Laura Giussani" -WindowsLiveID lgiussani@contoso.edu -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'Pa$$word1' -AsPlainText -Force)
Note Adding a Microsoft ID to an existing mail user doesn't change the primary e-mail address. As explained earlier, the value of ExternalEmailAddress is automatically used for the primary e-mail address of the mail user.
You use the CSV_Parser.ps1 Windows PowerShell script to create many mail users at one time by importing information about the mail users from a CSV file. For more information about how to download and use the script, see Create and Configure Recipients with the CSV_Parser.ps1 script in Live@edu.
In Microsoft Office 365, mail users have the following characteristics:
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A mail user always has a user ID associated with it. You can create a new user ID when you create the mail user.
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The user ID for the mail user must be in one of the accepted domains of the cloud-based organization. However, all other e-mail addresses associated with the mail user can be in any domain.
Run the following command:
New-MailUser -Name <name> -MicrosoftOnlineServicesID <user ID> -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String '<password>' -AsPlainText -Force)
For example, to create a mail user named Tamara Johnston, with the new user ID and e-mail address tjohnston@fabrikam.com, and the password Pa$$word1, run the following command:
New-MailUser -Name "Tamara Johnston" -MicrosoftOnlineServicesID tjohnston@fabrikam.com -Password (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'Pa$$word1' -AsPlainText -Force)
Note In this example, the ExternalEmailAddress parameter isn't used, so the e-mail address used for the MicrosoftOnlineServicesID parameter is automatically used for the ExternalEmailAddress parameter. As explained earlier, the value of ExternalEmailAddress is automatically used for the primary e-mail address of the mail user.
