How to Share Outlook Contacts Folders in Outlook Desktop

Outlook Contacts Folders can be shared with other users in and outside your organization (depending on your tenant’s permissions). This is useful for tasks like on-boarding employees or cross-department collaboration. This guide shows how to share Outlook Contacts Folders in the Outlook Desktop App.

Instructions

Sharing Contacts Folders w/Read-Only Access

1. Launch Outlook Desktop.
2. Click the people icon in the bottom-left corner of the navigation panel. Outlook will display in people view.
3. Select the desired contacts folder to share in the left-hand navigation panel.
4. Click Share Contacts in the ribbon at the top of the window. A blank email invitation will open. (See figure below.)
5. Define the recipient of the contacts folder in the To field.
   NOTE: Contact folder recipients can be a single user, users, or a user group.
6. Click Send. 

Sharing Contacts Folders w/Delegated Permissions and Access

1. Launch Outlook Desktop.
2. Click the people icon in the bottom-left corner of the navigation panel. Outlook will display in people view.
3. Right-click the desired contacts folder to share.
4. Click Properties. 
5. Click the Permissions tab.
6. Click Add. (See figure below.)
7. Search for the user(s) or group(s) to share the contacts folder to.
8. Double-click the username/group name to add.
9. Click OK when all desired users have been added. (See figure below.)
10. Click the drop-down arrow in Permission Level.
11. Choose the permission level to assign to the added user. In this example, the user is assigned the Editor permission level.
    NOTE: If sharing with multiple users, click the entry for each recipient to be able to delegate their viewing and editing permissions.
12. Click OK. (See figure below.)