How to Change the Sender of SharePoint 2019 Sharing Notifications
Question details
The user needs to change the default sender address for document sharing notifications so they originate from the user who shared the document.
- Product
- SharePoint 2019 On-Premises
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- A user shares a document with a colleague within a SharePoint 2019 on-premises environment.
- Observed behavior
- The sharing notification email is sent from the My Site administrator account rather than the actual user who initiated the document sharing.
Ensure you have Farm Administrator privileges in SharePoint Central Administration, as troubleshooting server-level email configurations requires elevated access.
Consult the Dedicated SharePoint On-Premises Forums
Because dynamic sender customization involves complex server configuration and known limitations in SharePoint on-premises, engaging the official community is the most effective way to find confirmed workarounds.
In SharePoint 2019 on-premises, sharing alerts often default to the system account or My Site administrator. Changing this to dynamically reflect the sharing user's email often requires custom development or specific SMTP relay permissions that allow spoofing.
Go to the official Microsoft Q&A platform and navigate to the SharePoint Server section.
Create a new thread detailing your SharePoint 2019 build, your current outgoing email SMTP configuration, and the issue with the My Site administrator appearing as the sender.
Ask the community if your specific patch level of SharePoint 2019 natively supports dynamic notification sender customization or if a third-party solution is required.
Verify Farm-Level Outgoing E-Mail Settings
Check if the global outgoing email settings are misconfigured, which might be forcing all alerts to originate from a single administrator address.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why do SharePoint 2019 sharing emails come from the My Site administrator?
In many on-premises environments, sharing notifications rely on timer jobs or the Farm's default outgoing SMTP configuration. If the system cannot dynamically spoof the sharing user's email address due to server rules or software limitations, it falls back to the system account or the designated My Site administrator.
Can I easily change the 'From' address for all SharePoint alerts?
Yes, Farm administrators can change the global 'From' address for the entire farm by navigating to Central Administration > System Settings > Configure outgoing e-mail settings. However, this sets a single static address for all system alerts rather than dynamically matching the user.
Does Microsoft natively support per-user sender customization in SharePoint on-premises?
Natively, SharePoint Server on-premises has limited support for dynamic sender spoofing in sharing notifications compared to SharePoint Online. It often requires specific Exchange/SMTP relay configurations to allow the SharePoint server to send emails on behalf of any user.
