Automatically forward email from a Microsoft 365 mailbox to another address, such as a colleague, a personal mailbox or a phone. You can do it yourself in Outlook, or an administrator can set it from the admin centre. Forwarding to addresses outside your business is blocked by default, so this guide also shows admins how to allow it safely.
Choose the right method
| Method | Who sets it | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Forwarding in Outlook settings | The mailbox owner | Forwarding everything to one address |
| An inbox rule | The mailbox owner | Forwarding only some messages, or to several addresses |
| Admin centre forwarding | An administrator | Leavers, staff on long leave, or when the user can't do it |
| Alias, group or shared mailbox | An administrator | When several people need the same email. Often better than forwarding. See Groups vs distribution lists vs shared mailboxes |
Forward your own email (Outlook on the web and new Outlook)
- Open Settings (gear icon, top right).
- Go to Mail → Forwarding.
- Turn on Enable forwarding and enter the address to forward to.
- Tick Keep a copy of forwarded messages unless you really want the mailbox left empty. Without it, messages go only to the other address.
- Select Save.
Classic Outlook has no separate forwarding setting. Use a rule instead: Home → Rules → Manage Rules & Alerts → New Rule → Apply rule on messages I receive, then choose forward it to people or public group or redirect it to people or public group. See Create inbox rules.
Admins: set forwarding for a user
- Sign in to admin.microsoft.com and go to Users → Active users.
- Select the user's name, then the Mail tab.
- Select Manage email forwarding.
- Tick Forward all emails sent to this mailbox, enter the forwarding address, and tick Keep a copy of forwarded emails in this mailbox if you want them kept.
- Select Save changes.
Admins: allow forwarding outside your business
Microsoft 365 blocks automatic forwarding to external addresses (such as Gmail) by default, because attackers who steal a password often set up a secret forward to copy all your email. If forwarding to an outside address doesn't work, the sender gets a bounce message containing 5.7.520 Access denied, Your organization does not allow external forwarding.
The safest fix is to allow it only for the people who need it:
- Open the Defender anti-spam policies at security.microsoft.com/antispam (or Email & collaboration → Policies & rules → Threat policies → Anti-spam).
- Create a new outbound policy. Select Create policy → Outbound and give it a name such as "Allow forwarding: named users".
- Add the users who are allowed to forward externally.
- Under Forwarding rules, set Automatic forwarding rules to On - Forwarding is enabled.
- Leave the default policy alone (or set it explicitly to Off - Forwarding is disabled), so everyone else stays protected. Save, and allow up to an hour to take effect.
Remote domain settings and mail flow rules in the Exchange admin centre can also block forwarding. If any setting blocks it, the block wins. See Exchange admin: mail flow rules and anti-spam.
Troubleshooting
Forwarded mail isn't arriving at Gmail or another outside address
Check for a 5.7.520 bounce (see above), then look in the recipient's spam folder. Providers such as Gmail sometimes treat forwarded mail as suspicious, especially if your domain has no DKIM set up (see Turn on DKIM and DMARC). If you only want to read work email on the go, the Outlook app on your phone is a better option than forwarding.
Forwarding was working and suddenly stopped
Common causes are a removed licence, a deleted user account, or a change to the outbound anti-spam policy. Use Message trace in the Exchange admin centre to see what happened to a test message.
I found a forward I didn't set up
Treat it as a possible account compromise. Remove the forward and any suspicious rules, change your password, sign out of all sessions and tell your administrator straight away. Turning on multi-factor authentication prevents most of these attacks.
Last reviewed: October 2026
