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Sometimes you may need to set an Outlook Out-of-Office message for a user that doesn’t have access to their email. This can be done from the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre.
If you have someone that is unable to access their Outlook email but hasn’t left the organisation, you may want to set up an Out-of-Office for them. It’s easy for an ex-employee – change their password, log in as them and set it up – but for an existing employee you may prefer to do it this way:
Turn on “Out-of-Office” for Outlook via Microsoft 365 Admin Centre
Note: Around June 2020 Microsoft Rebranded the Office 365 products to “Microsoft 365”.
- Sign-in to the Microsoft 365 admin center
- Click on Active users in the Users menu.
- Select a user who has a Microsoft Exchange mailbox and click on the Mail tab
- In the mail properties click on Manage automatic replies
- Place a tick in the box Turn on automatic replies
- Enter a message to be sent as a reply to senders inside and outside the organisation.
- Choose whether you want a message to go to all external senders or just known contacts
- Click on Save changes
If the auto reply does not work check for auto forwarding settings on the mailbox and remove them if necessary.
