How to Give Access and Manage a Delegated Email Account in Gmail

If you are the owner of a shared Arcadia account and a colleague needs access to it (to read and send email using the account), you can add them as a delegate. This gives them access without sharing the account password.

On this page

• Before you begin
• Grant delegated access to your account
• Accept a delegation invitation
• Access a delegated email account
• Manage email in a delegated account
• Remove a delegate
• Limitations of delegated accounts
• Security considerations
• Troubleshooting
• Official Google documentation

Before you begin

• You can only delegate access to another Arcadia University account. Delegation cannot be granted to personal accounts or to accounts outside the University.
• Delegation cannot be granted to an alias or alternate address, because an alias is not a separate Google Account. If you want to send mail from an alias instead, see Send emails from a different address or alias (Gmail Help).
• Google Groups: Google supports delegating a mailbox to a group, but this must be enabled by an administrator. If you need a group to have access, contact the IT Help Desk rather than attempting it yourself.
• You must use a desktop or laptop computer to add a delegate. Delegates cannot be added from the Gmail mobile app.
• Google will ask you to verify your identity before the delegation setting can be changed. Have your second-factor method available. See Verify it's you when you complete a sensitive action (Google Account Help).

Grant delegated access to your account

1. Log in to Gmail with the shared account (for example, registrar@arcadia.edu).
   • You must be on a desktop or laptop computer to reach these settings.
   • If you are already signed in to another Gmail account in your browser, you can sign in to multiple accounts at once (Google Account Help), use a separate browser profile, use a private/incognito window, or use a different browser.
2. Select Settings (the gear icon) in the top-right corner.
3. Select See all settings.
4. Select the Accounts and Import tab. (Depending on your account, this tab may simply be labelled Accounts.)

5. Under Grant access to your account, select Add another account. 

   

6. Enter the Arcadia email address of the colleague you wish to give delegated access to, then select Next step.
7. A confirmation message appears. Check that you have entered the correct email address.
8. Select Send email to grant access.

What happens next: Your colleague receives an invitation email. The invitation expires after one week. Once they accept, it can take up to 24 hours before they are able to open the account.

Accept a delegation invitation

1. On your computer, open Gmail and sign in to your own Arcadia account.
2. Look for an invitation email with the subject line "[Owner's name] has granted you access to their Gmail account."
3. Open the email and click the confirmation link.

If the invitation has expired, ask the account owner to send a new one by repeating the steps under Grant delegated access to your account.

Access a delegated email account

1. Sign in to your own Arcadia Gmail account.
2. Click your account photo or the circle with your initial in it, in the upper-right corner of the page.
3. In the menu, find the account marked "Delegated" and click its name.
4. A new tab opens showing the delegated account's inbox.
5. Check the email address at the top of the page to confirm you are in the correct account.

To switch back to your own mailbox, close the new tab, or click your account photo and select your own email address.

Do not bookmark the delegated inbox. The access link can change without warning, and saved bookmarks will stop working. Always use the account switcher menu instead.

Manage email in a delegated account

Follow the steps under Access a delegated email account. From the tab that opens, you can read, reply to, label, archive, and delete mail in the delegated account much as you would in your own.

Note: When you send an email from a delegated account, the recipient's inbox will show the message as coming from the account. When they open the message, your address is shown in parentheses alongside the account name, indicating that you sent it on the account's behalf.

Remove a delegate

Remove delegates promptly when a colleague changes role or leaves the University. Removing a delegate is a required offboarding step for any shared account.

1. On your computer, open Gmail and sign in to the shared account.
2. Select Settings (gear icon) → See all settings.
3. Select the Accounts and Import tab.
4. Under Grant access to your account, select Delete next to the person you want to remove.

Limitations of delegated accounts

Some Gmail features are unavailable when working inside a delegated account, including:

• Google Account settings
• Chat in Gmail and Meet in Gmail
• Gemini in Gmail, Smart Compose, and Smart Reply
• Spelling and grammar checks, autocorrect, and autocomplete
• Adding attachments to Drive, or adding photos and videos from Google Photos
• Adding items to Tasks
• Emoji reactions and client-side encryption

A delegate also cannot change the account's password or chat as the account. Access to a delegated account from the Gmail mobile apps is being rolled out gradually by Google and may not be available to you yet; some features behave differently there.

Security considerations

• Delegation is all or nothing. A delegate can read, send, and delete every message in the mailbox. You cannot limit a delegate to particular labels, folders, or senders. Only grant access to people who need the entire mailbox.
• Always use delegation instead of sharing a password. Sharing credentials for a shared account removes accountability and violates University policy.
• Changing or expiring the password does not revoke delegation. A delegate can continue to access the mailbox even after the account password has expired. Access ends only when the delegate is explicitly removed. See Remove a delegate.
• Review the delegate list regularly. Account owners should check Settings → Accounts and Import → Grant access to your account at least once per term and confirm every listed person still needs access.
• If you see a delegate you did not add, treat it as a possible account compromise. Contact the IT Help Desk immediately and change the account password. (Note that a University administrator can also add delegates to an account, so the Help Desk can confirm whether the entry is legitimate.)

Troubleshooting

I can't add a colleague as a delegate.
Confirm you are using a desktop browser, that the address is a full Arcadia address (not an alias), and that you completed the identity verification prompt. If it still fails, contact the Help Desk.

The delegated account isn't in my account switcher.
Confirm you clicked the confirmation link in the invitation email, and allow up to 24 hours after accepting. If the invitation is more than a week old, it has expired and must be resent.

My saved bookmark to the delegated inbox no longer works.
This is expected. Delete the bookmark and use the account switcher menu instead.

Everyone gets locked out of the shared account.
Gmail may temporarily lock an account when many people sign in from many locations at once. Contact the Help Desk if this happens repeatedly.

Official Google documentation

This article summarizes Google's guidance as it applied to Arcadia accounts at the time of writing. Google changes Gmail regularly; if a screen does not look as described above, the authoritative source is:

• Delegate & collaborate on email (Gmail Help) — the full reference for adding, removing, and accessing delegates.
• Delegate email to support staff (Google Workspace Learning Center) — guidance for shared team mailboxes.
• Send emails from a different address or alias (Gmail Help) — use this instead if you only need to send as another address.

For anything specific to Arcadia accounts, contact the IT Help Desk.

Last reviewed against Google's documentation: July 2026.