How to Set Auto Forward In Office 365?

Automatic forwarding is used by users in order to forward received messages to another user in an automated manner. Auto forwarding hides the identity of the original sender and the recipient will only get to know the sender who has forwarded the message. In addition, the replies sent by the recipient of the forwarded message go to the sender from whose address the message is forwarded.

In this post, we will show how a user can create automatic mail forwarding in Office 365.
Procedure to Create Email Forward Office 365
In order to enable automatic forwarding in Office 365:

1. Sign in to your Office 365 account.
2. From the top of the page, select Outlook or Mail tab or Select App Launcher and select Mail from the options.
3. In the right-top corner, select Settings option.
4. Click on Account option and then select Connected Accounts option or Click on Mail option. Then, click on Accounts option and click on Connected Accounts.
5. In the Forwarding section, enter the email address of the recipient to whom you want to forward your Office 365 mails in Forward my emails to box.

• Mark the check box Keep a copy of forwarded messages in Outlook Web App to keep a copy of the forwarded message.
• Click on Start Forwarding option or In the Forwarding section, enable the radio button Start Forwarding.
• Enter the email address of the recipient to which you want to forward the emails in the Forward my emails to box.
• Mark the check box Keep a copy of forwarded messages in Outlook Web App to keep a copy of the forwarded message.
• Click on Save to start the forwarding.

Note:

• Since a copy of the forwarded message is kept in your mailbox, it is advised to keep a check on the size of the mailbox. If the limit is exceeded, the forwarding option will not work.
• Forwarding and Connected Accounts are not meant to be used together. Therefore, do not confuse the features.

In case the above procedure does not work for you, create rules in order to enable email forwarding in Office 365.
Forward Office 365 Email to another Account by Message Rules
Office 365 users can enable automatic forwarding with the help of message rules:

1. From the top-left corner of the Outlook Web App, click on Settings button.
2. From the drop down menu, select Options.
3. Click on Organize email option.
   
   • Click on Inbox rules option.
   • Select New option to create a new rule or Click on Mail option.
   • Click on Automatic Processing option.
   • Select Inbox Rules option.
   • Select New option for creating a new rule.
4. In the When the Messages arrives section, click on the Apply to all messages option.
5. Click on Forward, redirect or send option and then select Forward the message to option or 
6. Enter the email address to which you want to forward the emails in the To box. You can also choose the required contact from your list of contacts.
7. Click on OK/Save to create the rule.

Note

• Since a copy of the forwarded message is stored in the mailbox, it may increase the size of the mailbox. In case the mailbox limit is exceeded, the forwarding will get blocked. Therefore, it is advised to keep a check on the mailbox size limit.
• When a forward rule is created, you can add more than one address for forwarding the messages. The maximum number of addresses that can be added depends on your Office 365 account setting.
• In case you just want to apply the forwarding rule to only a few messages and not to all messages, select option other than, Apply to all messages.
• It may happen that the administrator might have blocked the feature of office 365 forward email to External account. Therefore, it is advised to test the rule, after it is created.

Office 365 Forward Email to Multiple Users
I usually won’t recommend using this option but you can use it in case of emergency when the above options don’t fulfill the requirements. To auto forward emails to multiple users I will recommend you to create a distribution group for that. The group can be allowed to join an external email and in case of non-delivery to any member the message can be returned to the message originator. If there is occurrence of an error in message delivery then the message will be lost.

But if you need to forward emails to multiple users then I recommend you use a shared mailbox. It allows you to read all incoming messages and other items from a shared mailbox.
Change The Email Forwarding Settings
After setting up the email forwarding in Office 365, a user might need to make some changes later. In order to make the required changes, like deleting the old recipient and adding a new one or changing the setting of the sent emails to be copied, the user can:

1. Sign in to your Office 365 account.
2. Click on the App Launcher option or click on Outlook (or Mail option).
3. Select Mail option.
4. In the right-top corner, select Settings option.
5. Click on Account option and then select Connected Accounts option or Click on Mail option. Then, click on Accounts option and click on Connected Accounts.
6. Do one of the conditions, as per your requirement:
   
   • For Changing Email Address: In Forward my email to dialogue box, edit the email address. 
   • For Changing The Email Copy Setting: Select the Keep a copy of forwarded messages in Outlook Web App check box for saving a copy of the forwarded emails in the account. For not saving the email copy, do not select this option.
7. Select Save option.

Stop Email Forwarding
In case due you want to put an end to the email forwarding process, follow the below-mentioned steps:

1. Log in your Office 365 account.
2. In the right-top corner, select Settings option.
3. Click on Account option and then select Connected Accounts option or Click on Mail option. Then, click on Accounts option and click on Connected Accounts.
4. Select Stop Forwarding option for stopping this function.