Disable Access to a Cloud-Based Mailbox

  • Article

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

Although you can delete a user's cloud-based mailbox, there may be times that you only want to prevent a user from accessing their mailbox. For example, the user may be on a leave of absence or under investigation for disciplinary action.

To prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using any mail client or device, you use Windows PowerShell. The mailbox continues to receive mail, but the user can't access it.

Alternatively, you may want to prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using a specific client or device only. For example, you can configure a mailbox for one of these scenarios:

  • Prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using an Exchange ActiveSync device.
  • Prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using Outlook Web App.
  • Prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using a POP3 client.
  • Prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using an IMAP4 client.
  • Prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using a MAPI like Office Outlook 2007.
  • Prevent a user from accessing their mailbox using an Exchange Web Services (EWS) client like Microsoft Entourage 2008.

Before you begin

To learn how to install and configure Windows PowerShell and connect to the service, see Use Windows PowerShell in Exchange Online.

Disable access to a mailbox

Run the following command:

Set-CASMailbox <Identity> -OWAEnabled $false -PopEnabled $false -ImapEnabled $false -MAPIEnabled $false -ActiveSyncEnabled $false -EwsEnabled $false

For example, to prevent a user named Kim Akers from accessing her mailbox, run the following command:

Set-CASMailbox "Kim Akers" -OWAEnabled $false -PopEnabled $false -ImapEnabled $false -MAPIEnabled $false -ActiveSyncEnabled $false -EwsEnabled $false

Re-enable access to a mailbox

To re-enable access to the mailbox, simply run the same command, but set the value of the parameters to $true instead of $false as follows:

Set-CASMailbox "Kim Akers" -OWAEnabled $true -PopEnabled $true -ImapEnabled $true -MAPIEnabled $true -ActiveSyncEnabled $true -EwsEnabled $true