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DillonBurke-4338 avatar image
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DillonBurke-4338 asked KaelYao-MSFT edited

How Do I Forward to a Distribution Group and change TO field?

We have a procedure for when an employee leaves that goes as follows:

  1. Convert Users Mailbox to a Shared Mailbox

  2. Set an Auto-Reply that says they are no longer with the company and to email a Distribution list instead

  3. Since Microsoft does allow forwarding and auto-reply I created a rule on the Mailbox to forward incoming mail to the Distribution List.

Our issue is that when we forward to the Distribution list it keeps the To Field as To: ExEmployee@contso.com
We want it to change the To field to what it should be if sent to a Distribution list and say To: DistributionList@contso.com

We could make the users email an alias of the DL but then we couldn't send an email saying the employee is no longer with <company name>.


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KaelYao-MSFT avatar image KaelYao-MSFT ·

Hi @DillonBurke-4338

Did you mean you would like to change the To field of the original email when the email is forwarded to the distribution list?
To my knowledge, I am afraid that it may not be possible.

If using transport rule in Exchange Online instead of forwarding in Outlook, it is also not possible to archive your goal.
For example, you can create a rule like this:
1.condition: if the recipient is ExEmployee@contoso.com
2.action: Redirect the message to another_user@contoso.com or add recipient another_user@contoso.com to the To field
(While, you cannot select a distribution list as the recipient but a normal user mailbox in the action)

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DillonBurke-4338 avatar image DillonBurke-4338 KaelYao-MSFT ·

The issue with making a transport rule is that it won't send an automatic reply from the original mailbox, which is what we need.

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KaelYao-MSFT avatar image KaelYao-MSFT DillonBurke-4338 ·

The issue with making a transport rule is that it won't send an automatic reply from the original mailbox, which is what we need.

Yes. And meanwhile a transport rule wouldn't work on a distribution group.

To me the best solution would be which you have already done in the main post(have the shared mailbox forward messages to distribution group and set OOF for the shared mailbox)
While I am afraid there are no normal methods to change the To field.

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AndyDavid avatar image
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AndyDavid answered DillonBurke-4338 commented

Just a quick question, why the need to send an auto-reply instead of simply giving permission to the shared mailbox to their manager or someone who has taken over their role?

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DillonBurke-4338 avatar image DillonBurke-4338 ·

We want the customer to know there is a different employee replying and working on the email.

I know the sensible thing is to have the user say that in their initial reply to the customer but if the employee doesn't see the email or something we don't want the customer to think we are ignoring them.

Microsoft should just implement a feature for ex-employees that lets us redirect and send a notification to the sender.

Small Rant: This is going to be an issue for our European branch, apparently employees are legally allowed to use their work email for personal use and employer's can't monitor or manage their mailbox without first informing the user, which makes no sense. If its your company email it's implied that they own it and can do with it as they please, like the company pays for it so why does the employee get the final say.

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