# Read email from shared mailbox

**URL:** <https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578>\
**Category:** Robot Framework\
**Created:** [15 October 2021 11:10 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578 "2021-10-15T11:10:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![suchita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@suchita](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/suchita)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 11:10 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/1 "2021-10-15T11:10:23Z")

</div>

Hello,  
I would like to know how can I read email body from shared mailbox?  
For example, I have an email and password of my account and have access to read/write email from shared mailbox. Now I have to read an email body text using RF.

I didn’t find corresponding keywords to do this…

Thanks a lot !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HelioGuilherme66](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.robotframework.org/helioguilherme66/32/34_2.png) [@HelioGuilherme66](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/HelioGuilherme66)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 11:14 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/2 "2021-10-15T11:14:47Z")

</div>

Search for IMAP Library (I never used it, but think that is the one you need).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![suchita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@suchita](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/suchita)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 11:32 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/3 "2021-10-15T11:32:32Z")

</div>

> [@HelioGuilherme66](#):
>
> IMAP Library

Thanks for reply . There is no keyword to read from **shared mailbox**.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HelioGuilherme66](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.robotframework.org/helioguilherme66/32/34_2.png) [@HelioGuilherme66](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/HelioGuilherme66)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 11:36 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/4 "2021-10-15T11:36:53Z")

</div>

For a shared mailbox is just a mail box. Did you tried usual keywords?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![suchita](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@suchita](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/suchita)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 11:45 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/5 "2021-10-15T11:45:58Z")

</div>

It is true, shared mailbox is mailbox without username and password. I tried to use IMAP Library but it is not working.

Open Mailbox [host=imap-mail.outlook.com](http://host=imap-mail.outlook.com) user=${emailId} password=${pwd} port=993

I tried to give user value as my email as well as shared maillbox email id .

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![HelioGuilherme66](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.robotframework.org/helioguilherme66/32/34_2.png) [@HelioGuilherme66](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/HelioGuilherme66)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 11:51 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/6 "2021-10-15T11:51:15Z")

</div>

Well, first thing to learn is to configure an external app (outside the world of Microsoft), to see if it is possible to access the mail box. I would try with Thunderbird.

You probably have some form of authentication to access the mailbox. If you use Outlook there may be some “magic” behind.

Good luck, this is out of my domain 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![damies13](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forum.robotframework.org/damies13/32/623_2.png) [@damies13](https://forum.robotframework.org/u/damies13)\
**Post date:** [15 October 2021 22:51 UTC](https://forum.robotframework.org/t/read-email-from-shared-mailbox/2578/7 "2021-10-15T22:51:58Z")

</div>

Indeed if you are using Outlook your email client is probably using Microsoft’s proprietary protocol and may not have any of the standard email protocols enabled (one organisation I worked for had many exchange servers, only the 1 server in the dmz had smtp enabled for connection to the external world).

So you may need to discuss with your email administrator what their configurations are and whether they can even enable pop3 or imap for you (some organisations there will be a “security edict” preventing them from doing this).

As an alternative many organisations that use exchange will have OWA (outlook web access) which you can access via a web browser and should be able to automate with one of the web libraries.

Hope this helps,

Dave.
