Quick Tip - change the target email address for Alerts in SharePoint Online

Alerts

Do you need to stay on top of the changes done to documents in a document library?  No need to visit the document library every five minutes to see if anything changed – just set an alert for the library.

 
By default the delivery method for the alert is an email to the email address you use for logging into Office 365


 
When ever (if you prefer that frequency) someone commit changes to one or more documents in the document library you’ll get an email in your Office 365 Inbox


 
Changing the email address

In case you’d like the email to go to another email address, you’ll need to edit the “work e-mail” attribute in your User Profile found in your MySite

1. Open your Team Site, click your name at the top right and then click "My Profile"

2. Click "Edit My Profile" (under your picture)


 

3. Scroll down to the Contact Information section, and type the email address of your choice in the Work e-mail box

 

Unlocking the work e-mail attribute 

By default the Work e-mail attribute is read-only for the users of SharePoint Online. However the SharePoint Administrator can allow users to edit the attribute.

1. Open the SharePoint Online Administration Center and click "Manage User Properties"

 
2. Scroll down to the Contact Information Section, hover over the area a little to the left of the reordering arrows in the Work e-mail row, click to tiny menu arrow and then click "Edit"


 
3. Scroll down a bit to the Edit Settings sectiion and change the setting to Allow users to edit values for this property and you are done


 
From now on the users can edit the work email address and have their alerts sent to the email address of their choice (please note that the changes can take up to a day or two to kick in)

The new email address now listed in the Delivery Method section of the alert

And the alert now goes to the email address of my choice

See also