Set Out Of Office Message In Outlook for A Different User

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If you think employees wouldn’t just leave for a vacation and not set their out-of-office status, you couldn’t be more wrong. They do, and they will! And when it happens, you’ll get a ticket in your queue asking to set up that employee’s mailbox to send automatic replies.

So what do you do? Don’t worry. You can set the out-of-office message of another user without knowing their credentials. Just breathe deep and remember that you’re the admin. And if you’re not sure what to do, we’ll show you the different ways.

Requirements

• Admin access to the Exchange organization. Our tutorial will be demonstrating the steps with an Exchange Online organization in a Microsoft 365 tenant. The same commands will be applicable to on-premises Exchange server organizations.
• Access to the Exchange admin center (EAC) and/or Exchange Management Shell for on-premises Exchange Server mailboxes.
• Have the Exchange Online PowerShell V3 module installed on your computer if working with Exchange Online mailboxes.

Methods to Set Out of Office Message for Another User

There are several ways to config automatic replies for another user. For admin tasks, Exchange Online PowerShell is the recommended method because it does not require Full Access to the user’s mailbox. The Microsoft 365 admin center provides another option without granting mailbox access. If you need to use the Outlook on the web interface, you can temporarily grant Full Access to the mailbox.

Using PowerShell to Set Out of Office Message (recommended)

Note that this method does not require Full Access to the mailbox. Your account must have an Exchange RBAC role that provides the required permissions for Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration (such as the Mail Recipients role). The role can be assigned through an appropriate role group/through a custom role group when a least-privilege config is required.

In your Exchange PowerShell session, run this command:

Don’t forget to replace MAILBOX with the target user’s mailbox email address, alias, or another value accepted by the -Identity parameter.

# These times are interpreted in the local time zone of the PowerShell session
$startTime = Get-Date "2026-10-12 09:00:00"
$endTime = Get-Date "2026-10-19 09:00:00"

Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity "MAILBOX" `
-AutoReplyState Scheduled `
-StartTime $startTime `
-EndTime $endTime `
-InternalMessage "I'm on vacation until October 19." `
-ExternalMessage "I'm on vacation until October 19." `
-ExternalAudience Known

Time zone. Get-Date interprets the specified time in the local time zone of the PowerShell session. In case the admin and the mailbox user are in different time zones, you need to check if the specified start and end times correspond to the intended local time for the mailbox. This is especially important when configuring automatic replies for users in different regions.

Here’s what each part of the code does:

• Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration: This cmdlet sets the auto-reply configuration for a mailbox.
• Identity “MAILBOX”: This specifies the name of the mailbox for which the auto-reply configuration is being set.
• AutoReplyState Scheduled: This specifies that the auto-reply will be sent during a scheduled time period.
• StartTime: Specifies the date and time when the scheduled automatic replies will begin. Replace the example value with the actual start date and time required for the mailbox user.
• EndTime: Specifies the date and time when the scheduled automatic replies will stop.
• InternalMessage: Specifies the automatic reply message that will be sent to internal users during the configured out-of-office period.
• ExternalMessage: Specifies the automatic reply message that will be sent to external recipients during the configured out-of-office period.
• ExternalAudience Known: Specifies that automatic replies are sent only to known external contacts. Other valid values are:
  • None — disable external automatic replies.
  • All — enable external automatic replies to all addresses.
    In case -ExternalAudience is not specified, the default value is All. Therefore, explicitly set -ExternalAudience when configuring external automatic replies in order to avoid unintentionally sending OOF messages to external recipients.

If the command is successful, you will not see any messages on the screen.

Finally, let’s confirm that the out-of-office message is set by running this command:

Get-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration -Identity "MAILBOX" |
Format-List AutoReplyState, StartTime, EndTime,
ExternalAudience, InternalMessage, ExternalMessage

Set OOF using Outlook Web

A more convenient way to config automatic replies for another user is through Outlook on the Web (OWA). This method requires Full Access permission to the target mailbox.

If you do not already have Full Access, grant it first using the procedure in the Grant Full Access Permission for OWA section below.

1. Open Outlook on the Web at:
   https://outlook.office.com/
2. Sign in with your admin account.
3. Then click your profile picture in the upper-right corner and select Open another mailbox. Enter the email address of the target mailbox and open it. Once the mailbox opens, click Settings > View all Outlook settings > Mail > Automatic replies.

Under Automatic replies, configure the following:

• Switch on the Automatic replies on option. Optionally, set the time range when the automatic replies will be sent. Once the end time is reached, the automatic replies will be disabled automatically.
  
• Enter the automatic reply message that will be sent to the people inside your organization.
  
• Optionally, enter the automatic reply message that will be sent to the people outside your organization. You can also choose to limit automatic replies to your contacts only or to anyone.
  

And that’s how you set the OOF of another user in OWA.

Grant Full Access Permission for OWA

But first, you must have full access permission to the mailbox before you can modify its out-of-office configuration. Here’s how.

For Exchange Server, open the Exchange Management Shell. For Exchange Online, connect to an Exchange Online PowerShell session.

In PowerShell, run this command to give yourself full access permission to the mailbox.

Add-MailboxPermission `
-AccessRights FullAccess `
-InheritanceType All `
-Identity "MAILBOX" `
-User "USER" `
-AutoMapping:$false

Note. Full Access permission changes may not take effect immediately. You need to allow some time for the permission to propagate before attempting to open the mailbox in Outlook/Outlook on the web.

The command grants FullAccess permission to the specified mailbox, and won’t automatically add it to your Outlook profile.

The result would be similar to the below screenshot.

You’ve now given yourself full access permission to the mailbox.

Now you can use Get-MailboxPermission in order to check if the Full Access permission has been assigned:

Get-MailboxPermission -Identity 'MAILBOX' -User 'USER' |
Format-List User,AccessRights,IsInherited,Deny

Important note. In case you grant FullAccess permission, it will expose mailbox content, you should avoid this when possible. We recommend you to use PowerShell method because of a higher security.

Remove Full Access Permission

Your full access permission to the mailbox should be removed after you’ve accomplished your task. Leaving admin full access permission when indefinitely is bad practice. To remove the permission, run this command in PowerShell.

Remove-MailboxPermission `
-AccessRights FullAccess `
-Identity "MAILBOX" `
-User "USER" `
-Confirm:$false

Note. Don’t forget to replace MAILBOX and USER with the actual mailbox and user identifiers when performing command.

Set Automatic Replies from Microsoft 365 Admin Center

Microsoft 365 admins can config automatic replies for a user without granting Full Access to the mailbox. Follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center (https://admin.microsoft.com).
2. Go to Users → Active users.
3. Select the required user.
4. In the user details pane, select Mail.
5. Select Automatic replies.
6. Config the reply message, schedule, and external audience.
7. Save the changes.

The method above is useful for occasional admin tasks because it does not require PowerShell/mailbox content access.

Wrapping Up

Adding an out-of-office message to another user’s mailbox can be accomplished in a few ways. As an admin, you can config another user’s automatic replies using Exchange Online PowerShell/Microsoft 365 admin center without granting Full Access to the mailbox. If you need to use Outlook on the Web, Full Access to the mailbox is required.

If adding Full Access is not possible or allowed, you can config automatic replies using Set-MailboxAutoReplyConfiguration in Exchange Online PowerShell. Once you are connected to Exchange Online and have the required RBAC permissions, this method is typically faster and easier to automate than opening the mailbox through Outlook on the Web. It also avoids unnecessary access to mailbox contents.