recent access to email address but no old emails are visible

Open the address as a separate mailbox in Outlook on the web and have your Microsoft 365 administrator verify that you were granted Full Access (Read and manage), because sending permission alone does not provide access to existing messages.

1. Open the complete mailbox

In Outlook on the web:

1. Sign in with your own work account.
2. Select your profile name or picture in the top-right corner.
3. Select Open another mailbox.
4. Enter the email address you were given and select Open.
5. In the new window, expand Inbox, Sent Items, Archive, and any custom folders.

Alternatively, right-click Folders in the left navigation pane, select Add shared folder or mailbox, and enter the address. Recently assigned access can take a few hours to appear. ^1^

Opening it separately helps distinguish the mailbox’s folders from similarly named folders under your own account. Microsoft documents both supported opening methods for Outlook on the web. ^2^

2. Ask the administrator to verify permission scope

The administrator should check that your account has Full Access, called Read and manage in the Microsoft 365 admin center:

1. Microsoft 365 admin center → Users → Active users.
2. Select the owner of the mailbox.
3. Open Mail → Read and manage permissions.
4. Add your account if it is not listed.

For a shared mailbox, the equivalent Exchange admin center path is:

1. Recipients → Mailboxes.
2. Select the shared mailbox.
3. Select Manage mailbox delegation.
4. Under Full Access (Read and manage), add your account.

Full Access permits reading and managing the mailbox contents. Send As and Send on Behalf are separate permissions and do not, by themselves, provide access to the existing mail. ^3^ ^4^

3. Check received and sent history separately

If the old received messages appear but historical sent messages do not, those sent messages may never have been stored in the shared mailbox. By default, messages sent as or on behalf of a shared mailbox can be saved in the individual sender’s Sent Items instead. An administrator can configure future messages to be copied into the shared mailbox’s Sent Items, but that does not retroactively move earlier messages. ^5^

Consequently, historical sent mail may need to be obtained from the Sent Items folders of the people who previously used the address.

4. If the mailbox is still empty

Ask the administrator to check:

• Online Archive: Older messages may have been moved there by an archive policy. Delegate access to an archive requires Full Access; in some hybrid Exchange configurations, Outlook automapping cannot expose another user’s cloud archive, while Outlook on the web can. ^6^
• Deleted Items and recovery: In Outlook on the web, open Deleted Items, then select Recover items deleted from this folder. ^7^
• Administrator recovery: If messages were purged but remain within the configured retention period, an Exchange administrator can use Exchange admin center → Recipients → Mailboxes → select mailbox → Others → Recover deleted items. This requires the relevant administrative permissions. ^8^
• Retention policies: A policy may have archived or deleted older mail. Required organizational retention policies cannot be removed by an end user, so the administrator must identify the policy and determine whether recovery remains possible. ^9^

If the mailbox, archive, Deleted Items, and recoverable items are all empty, Outlook cannot display mail that is no longer stored in that mailbox. The administrator should then check organizational backups, retention/eDiscovery holds, or open a Microsoft 365 support request.

References

1. Accessing other people's mailboxes in Microsoft 365
2. [Outlook on the web](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/sharing/open-and-use-a-shared-mailbox-in-outlook)
3. Give mailbox permissions to another Microsoft 365 user - Admin help
4. Shared mailboxes in Exchange Online
5. Messages sent from a shared mailbox aren't saved to the Sent Items folder
6. On-premises users can't access cloud archive mailboxes with Full Access permission in Outlook
7. [Web](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/mail/recover-and-restore-deleted-items-in-outlook)
8. Recover deleted messages in a user's mailbox in Exchange Online
9. Assign retention labels and archive policies in Outlook on the web | Microsoft Support