How to Share Outlook Contacts Folder in Microsoft 365?

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In this article, we’ll show you how to share your contact list in Microsoft 365. Let’s say your task is to share a mailbox Contacts folder (Exchange Online folder-level permissions) that should be available to specific users in your organization.

Our article covers sharing a personal mailbox Contacts folder. If you need a company-wide address list available to all users, you should consider using the Global Address List (GAL)/shared mailbox instead.

Contacts folder overview

The Contacts folder is a built-in folder in on-premises Exchange Server and Microsoft 365. Like the Calendar folder, this folder has a special view in Outlook. However, keep in mind that under the hood is a regular folder of the user’s mailbox, so you can manage permissions similarly to sharing a Mail or Calendar folder.

Sharing the Contacts folder

You can share the Contacts folder using the desktop Microsoft Office Outlook email client or using PowerShell.

Using the Outlook Desktop Client

1. Run the Microsoft Outlook on your computer or laptop;
2. Click on the People icon in the bottom left corner;

   

3. Click the Share Contacts button in the Navigation Pane;
   

   

   Note. You will find this button in classic Outlook only. In the new Outlook, to manage sharing you should use folder Properties. Outlook on the Web users can manage Contacts folder sharing through the People section using the Sharing and permissions option.
4. A new email message form will appear. Here you need to specify the email of the user with whom you want to share the “Contacts” folder;
5. You need to choose one of two options in the email parameters:
   Allow recipient to view your Contacts folder;
   Request permission to view recipient’s Contacts folder.
6. Select the first option (you can also check the second one if you need mutual access).
7. Click Send.
8. A confirmation dialog will appear, click Yes.

Similarly, an Outlook user can share their contact list.

Note that shared Contacts folder:

• works only inside Outlook clients
• NOT fully integrated into:
  • Teams contacts
  • mobile contact sync (iOS/Android)
  • some Outlook new experiences

Note. The users can also share their calendar using Outlook Web App/OWA, the process is similar.

Share Contacts in Outlook on the Web

You can also share your Contacts folder using Outlook on the Web (OWA). Follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to Outlook on the Web;
2. Open the People section;
3. Open the Contacts folder settings and select Sharing and permissions (or Folder permissions, depending on your Outlook version). If the Sharing and permissions option is unavailable, you should contact your Microsoft 365 admin because folder sharing features may differ between Outlook versions and tenant configs;
4. Enter the name/email address of the user you want to share the folder with;
5. Select the appropriate permission level;
6. Click Share/Save.

The selected user will receive access to the Contacts folder based on the assigned permissions.

Note. Folder sharing options in Outlook on the Web may vary depending on the Microsoft 365 tenant config and the Outlook version currently deployed by Microsoft.

Configure access permissions to Contact folder

An Outlook user can configure access permissions to their Contact folder for other Microsoft 365 tenant users:

1. Go to the People section;
2. Right-click on the contacts folder you want to share and select Properties;
3. Go to the Permissions tab;
4. Click the Add button and select the user you want to grant access to the Contacts folder;
5. Choose one of the Permission Levels (Owner, PublishingEditor, Editor, PublishingAuthor, Author, NonEditingAuthor, Reviewer, Contributor), or assign permissions manually.

   

Understanding Permission Levels

Reviewer	Read-only. The user can see the contacts but cannot change anything.
Author	The user can read all contacts and create new, but can only edit/delete the only ones they have created.
Editor	The user can read, create, and edit/delete any contact in the folder.
Owner	Full control. The user can do everything an Editor can, and also change folder permissions for other users.

Note. Check how to block list domain/email address in Microsoft 365.

Assign permissions to user’s Contacts folder using PowerShell

A Microsoft 365 administrator can assign permissions to a user’s Contacts folder using PowerShell.

To do this, you need to connect to the Exchange Online tenant using the Exchange Online PowerShell V3 (EXO V3) module:

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName kirill@theitbros.onmicrosoft.com

Now you can display the current access permissions assigned to the Contacts folder of a specific user:

Get-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts" | Select FolderName, user, AccessRights

Verify Exchange Online Connection

After connecting, you should check that the Exchange Online session is active before running mailbox permission commands. On Exchange Online PowerShell V3, use the following command:

Get-ConnectionInformation

The command should return info about the active Exchange Online session (including the connected account and connection status).

Alternatively, you can run the command below:

Get-EXOMailbox -ResultSize 1

If the command returns mailbox info without errors, your Exchange Online PowerShell connection is working correctly.

Find the Contacts Folder Name

The default Contacts folder name may differ depending on the mailbox language. For example, it can be named Contacts, Контакты, Kontakte, or Contactpersonen. Before assigning permissions, you can identify the correct Contacts folder name by running:

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics brett.jackson |
Where-Object {$_.FolderType -eq "Contacts"} |
Select Name, FolderPath

Here is an example output:

Name FolderPath
---- ----------
Контакты /Контакты

You can use the returned folder name when assigning permissions:

Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "brett.jackson:\Контакты" `
-User user1@theitbros.onmicrosoft.com `
-AccessRights Reviewer

Before assigning new permissions, you should check if the user already has access to the Contacts folder. If a permission entry already exists, you should use Set-MailboxFolderPermission instead of Add-MailboxFolderPermission:

Get-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts"

If the user already has a permission entry, Add-MailboxFolderPermission returns an error. In this case, you need to use Set-MailboxFolderPermission to modify the existing access level.

Grant access and remove Contacts folder permissions

If you want to grant access to view the Contacts folder items to another user, run:

Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity brett.jackson:\Contacts -User user1@theitbros.onmicrosoft.com -AccessRights Reviewer

If a user already has permissions assigned to the Contacts folder, you can use the Set-MailboxFolderPermission cmdlet to modify the existing access level:

Set-MailboxFolderPermission `
-Identity brett.jackson:\Contacts `
-User user1@theitbros.onmicrosoft.com `
-AccessRights Editor

For example, you can change a user’s permission level from Reviewer (read-only) to Editor (read, create, modify, and delete contacts).

Use the Remove-MailboxFolderPermission cmdlet to remove the Contacts folder permissions:

Remove-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity brett.jackson:\Contacts -User user1@theitbros.onmicrosoft.com

In case you need to remove access for all users at once, you can delete all custom permission entries while preserving the default permissions:

Get-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts" |
Where-Object {$_.User -notlike "Default" -and $_.User -notlike "Anonymous"} |
ForEach-Object {
    Remove-MailboxFolderPermission `
    -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts" `
    -User $_.User `
    -Confirm:$false
}

The command mentioned above removes all explicitly assigned user permissions from the Contacts folder while keeping the built-in Default and Anonymous entries.

After that check that only the Default and Anonymous entries remain:

Get-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts"

How to Open a Shared Contacts Folder in Outlook

In order to open a Shared Contacts folder in Outlook, perform the following steps:

• Open Shared Contacts in Outlook
• Open Microsoft Outlook;
• Switch to the People view;
• In the ribbon, select Open Shared Contacts (if available);
• Enter the name or email address of the mailbox owner;
• Click OK;
• The shared Contacts folder will appear in the Outlook navigation pane.

If the shared Contacts folder does not appear automatically, follow these steps:

1. Open File > Account Settings > Account Settings;
2. Select your Exchange account and click Change;
3. Click More Settings;
4. Open the Advanced tab;
5. Click Add and select the mailbox owner;
6. Restart Outlook.

The shared Contacts folder should now be available under the People section.

Note. The exact steps may vary depending on whether you are using classic Outlook, new Outlook, or Outlook on the web. Also, keep in mind that Shared Contacts folders are primarily designed for Outlook desktop clients and may have limited functionality in mobile Outlook apps.

Grant Contacts Folder Permissions to Multiple Users

If you need to grant the same permission level to multiple users, you can automate the process with PowerShell:

$users = @(
"user1@contoso.com",
"user2@contoso.com",
"user3@contoso.com"
)

foreach ($user in $users) {
    try {
        Add-MailboxFolderPermission `
        -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts" `
        -User $user `
        -AccessRights Reviewer `
        -ErrorAction Stop
    }
    catch {
        Write-Warning "Failed to assign permissions to $user. $_"
    }
}

If some users already have permissions assigned, you need to replace Add-MailboxFolderPermission with Set-MailboxFolderPermission/check existing permissions before running the script.

This example grants Reviewer permissions to multiple users on the same Contacts folder. You can replace the permission level with Editor, Author, or another supported access right as needed.

The command below displays all current permission entries for the Contacts folder and helps you to check that permissions were assigned successfully:

Get-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "brett.jackson:\Contacts"

Wrapping up

Shared Contacts folders are a simple way to provide access to personal contact lists inside Microsoft 365. You can manage folder permissions using Exchange Online PowerShell, while users can share and manage access directly from Outlook.

For organization-wide contact sharing, you should consider using the Global Address List (GAL), Microsoft 365 Groups, or a shared mailbox instead of individual Contacts folder permissions.