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Connect a Microsoft 365 mailbox

Last updated 22 August 2026

InboxAgent works by reading the email that arrives in a mailbox you choose — typically a shared inbox like info@, sales@, or support@ — and triaging it for you. Connecting a Microsoft 365 mailbox takes two steps: add the mailbox, then connect it by signing in with Microsoft.

You need to be a workspace admin to add or connect mailboxes. Everyone else sees the Integrations screen read-only.

Step 1 — Add the mailbox

  1. Go to Settings → Integrations. Connected mailboxes are at the top of the page.
  2. Click Add mailbox.
  3. Fill in the form:
    • Email address — the mailbox InboxAgent should read, e.g. info@yourcompany.com. This can’t be changed later; to fix a typo, delete the mailbox and add it again.
    • Display name — the friendly label shown across InboxAgent, e.g. “Info inbox”.
    • Category — what kind of mail this inbox receives (Sales, Support, Info…). This is a label to help you organize; it doesn’t change how mail is classified.
    • Provider — choose Microsoft 365.
    • Shared mailbox — tick this if the address is a shared mailbox rather than a person’s own account. Getting this right matters for the next step — see Personal vs shared mailboxes.
  4. Click Create, then confirm. Your first mailbox is included in your base subscription; each additional mailbox adds a per-mailbox charge. See Billing for when that is charged on monthly and yearly plans.

The mailbox now appears in the list marked Not connected — it isn’t reading anything yet.

Step 2 — If Microsoft asks for admin approval

Depending on how your organization’s Microsoft 365 is set up, connecting may require a one-time approval from your IT admin. You might see a Microsoft screen saying “Need admin approval”, or a warning that InboxAgent is an “unverified app” — that prompt is normal at this stage.

InboxAgent prepares this for you: every not-yet-connected Microsoft mailbox shows a notice titled “Your IT admin may need to approve InboxAgent” with a ready-to-send message. Click Copy message and send it to your IT admin — it contains the approval link they need. Once they’ve approved, come back and continue with Step 3.

Approval alone doesn’t connect the mailbox. After your admin approves, you still click Connect yourself.

Step 3 — Connect

  1. Click Connect on the mailbox row.

  2. Sign in with Microsoft. Which account you sign in with matters:

    • Personal mailbox — sign in as that exact address.
    • Shared mailbox — sign in as a person who has access to it (a delegate), not as the shared mailbox itself.

    If you sign in with the wrong account, InboxAgent blocks the connection and tells you exactly what to do differently — nothing is stored until the right account is used.

  3. Approve the requested access. InboxAgent asks for read-only access to mail: it can read messages, but it can never send, move, delete, or change anything in the mailbox. InboxAgent checks what Microsoft actually granted the moment you land back: if a required permission is missing (for example, shared-mailbox read access on a shared mailbox), the mailbox is not shown as Connected — the row tells you which permission was missing and to reconnect, and for organization accounts your IT admin may need to approve InboxAgent first.

You’ll land back on the Integrations page with a confirmation, and the mailbox badge changes to Connected.

Step 4 — Confirm it’s working

  • Click Test on the row. Within a few seconds you’ll see a green Connected chip.
  • InboxAgent immediately imports the history you chose on the Add-mailbox form — the default is the last 7 days, up to 200 messages, newest first; choosing None starts clean with only new mail. Older mail than your choice is never imported.
  • From then on it checks for new mail about once a minute. New messages appear on your Dashboard and in Inbox activity as they’re processed.

If something goes wrong

  • You see a plain error page during sign-in (for example after leaving the Microsoft window open for a while): go back to Settings → Integrations and click Connect again.
  • “This mailbox is labelled … but you signed in as …”: you used the wrong account — re-read Step 3, or check the Shared mailbox setting on the row’s Edit form.
  • The mailbox disconnects later: you’ll see a red “Connection lost” notice on the row, an alert in the bell at the top of the screen, and (by default) an email. Click Connect to reconnect — see When a mailbox disconnects.
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