Disable Outlook Mailbox Auto-Mapping

When Microsoft released Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 we’ve discovered new feature that allows Microsoft Outlook 2010 and 2007 clients to automatically map mailbox to which a user has Full Access permission.

So if we add user Full Access permission to 10 mailboxes, he will all 10 mailboxes in his Outlook because these mailboxes will be automatically mapped in Outlook.

In Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 there was no option to turn this “great” feature off.

But when we get Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP2 we can use Exchange Management Shell (Exchange Powershell) to disable this feature.

When we use Exchange Management Console to add user Full Mailbox Permission to other mailbox, this mailbox will be loaded to user Outlook.

If we want to add user Full Mailbox Permission but we don’t want automap this mailbox to Microsoft Outlook we have to use powershell:

Add-MailboxPermission -Identity JohnSmith -User 'Other User' -AccessRight FullAccess -InheritanceType All -Automapping $false

Above example will add Full Access Permission for Other User to JohnSmith mailbox. To prevent automapping we use option -Automapping $false

If we want to disable automapping for mailbox where users already have Full Access Permission, we have to first list all permissions to this mailbox, next remove this permissions, and add them again with automapping option.

Below we present how to change permissions for mailbox:

$permissions = Get-MailboxPermission somemailbox | where {$_AccessRights -eq "FullAccess" -and $_IsInherited -eq $false}

$permissions | Remove-MailboxPermission

$permissions | ForEach {Add-MailboxPermission -Identity $_.Identity -User $_.User -AccessRights:FullAccess -AutoMapping $false}