Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online

Topic Last Modified: 2013-02-13

Public folders are designed for shared access and provide an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization.

Caution:
By default, a public folder inherits the settings of its parent folder, including the permissions settings.

For additional management tasks related to managing public folders, see Public Folder Procedures.

For additional management tasks related to public folders, see Public Folder Procedures in Exchange Online.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folders" entry in the Sharing and Collaboration Permissions topic.

  • You can’t create a public folder unless you’ve first created a public folder mailbox. For more information about how to create a public folder mailbox, see Create a Public Folder Mailbox.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in the Exchange Admin Center.

What do you want to do?

Use the EAC to create a public folder

When using the EAC to create a public folder, you’ll only be able to set the name and the path of the public folder. To configure additional settings, you’ll need to edit the public folder after it’s created.

  1. Navigate to Public folders > Public folders.

  2. If you want to create this public folder as a child of an existing public folder, click the existing public folder in the list view. If you want to create a top-level public folder, skip this step.

  3. Click Add Add Icon.

  4. In Public Folder, type the name of the public folder.

    Important:
    Don't use a backslash (\) in the name when creating a public folder.
  5. In the Path box, verify the path to the public folder. If this isn’t the desired path, click Cancel and follow Step 2 of this procedure.

  6. Click Save.

Use the Shell to create a public folder

This example creates a public folder named Reports in the path Marketing\2013.

Copy Code 
New-PublicFolder -Name Reports -Path \Marketing\2013
Important:
Don't use a backslash (\) in the name when creating a public folder.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see New-PublicFolder.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you’ve successfully created a public folder, do the following:

  • In the EAC, click Refresh to refresh the list of public folders. Your new public folder should be displayed in the list.

  • In the Shell, run any of the following commands:

    Copy Code 
    Get-PublicFolder -Identity \Marketing\2013\Reports | Format-List
    Copy Code 
    Get-PublicFolder -Identity \Marketing\2013 -GetChildren
    Copy Code 
    Get-PublicFolder -Recurse
Tip:
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection