Can I share a folder across 2 different domains

Question asked by Anne Campbell - 7/15/2025 at 5:38 AM

Answered

We are an end user operating SmarterMail exclusively within our business—no Outlook integrations or involvement as a developer or reseller.

Our server hosts two domains to reflect different divisions of the business. Following the retirement of a colleague in one domain, we’re restructuring responsibilities—specifically purchasing—under the other domain.

We’d like to transfer or share the relevant supplier folder between the two domains. A one-time move would be sufficient if ongoing sharing isn’t feasible. Could you advise on how best to achieve this?

6 Replies

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Derek Curtis Replied

7/16/2025 at 8:15 AM

Employee Post Marked As Answer

Unfortunately it's not possible to share folders across domains. You do have options, though:

1. Detach the user from DomainA and then attach that user to DomainB, or

2. Copy the user folder from DomainA and paste it into DomainB, then attach the user.

Method 1 is probably easiest, unless you want the account to reside on both servers.

Derek Curtis

CCO

SmarterTools Inc.

www.smartertools.com

Anne Campbell Replied

7/17/2025 at 6:49 AM

Thanks Derek,

Can I ask why we can't share across Domains?

I think ill need to extract all customer data from the user whilst in Domain A then move the user across to DomainB and extract all the supplier data.

However we are getting still getting suppliers emailing the wrong domain as not updating either systems.

If only there was a SMARTER solution to let me drag straight into DomainB. yeah I can forward but that's messy when want to reply to email.

Oliver Replied

7/17/2025 at 7:53 AM

Please note the following article regarding forwarded emails:

https://portal.smartertools.com/community/a97325/invitation-error-with-forwarded-address.aspx

SM treats forwarded emails differently than other mail server solutions.

Derek Curtis Replied

7/17/2025 at 8:55 AM

Employee Post

Anne,

It doesn't have to be "messy" with replies. You can set up a content filter for the account that sends a message to the sender notifying them of the change and forwarding the email to the new mailbox. You can also use an autoresponder if you like, and set up automatic forwarding. You could even set up an event to do the same things.

Regardless of how it's done, replying from that new email address isn't (or shouldn't be) a surprise. You may also want to consider a footer for the domain that notifies people of whatever organizational change is being made, sort of like companies do when they're going through a re-branding. But that may be more than you want to do at this time.

As for "why" -- domains are essentially organizations. Sharing between orgs requires permissions and access controls, which can be complex to manage. Systems like Exchange have that built in through AD and ACLs. SmarterMail, and other mail servers, treat domains as their own entities or organizations. So, for the time being, sharing cross domain isn't possible, though it's something we're looking at implementing in the future.

Derek Curtis

CCO

SmarterTools Inc.

www.smartertools.com

Anne Campbell Replied

8/14/2025 at 9:02 AM

Thanks Derek, being able to just share across domains would be much easier in our circumstances.

Content filtering wouldn't work as, we want to segregate customers from suppliers.

We would just like the ability to drag emails into folder to allow us to reply from the appropriate email address without forwarding etc. and its frustrating as both domains are on our server !!

Zach Sylvester Replied

8/14/2025 at 4:04 PM

Employee Post

Hey Anne,

Thanks for the details. Based on what you’re trying to do (one mailbox, reply from the appropriate address, and drag messages into a single folder structure), you likely don’t need two separate domains.

A simpler option is to make the secondary domain a domain alias of the primary domain. That way, you keep one mailbox and can add a second From identity in webmail to send as either address. This also lets you keep all mail in one folder tree and drag messages wherever you want without forwarding and enables you to share these folders with other users on the same domain.

Kind regards,

Zach Sylvester

Software Developer
SmarterTools Inc.

www.smartertools.com

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