Share via

Procedures for messages in queues

  • Article

In Exchange Server, you can use the Queue Viewer in the Exchange Toolbox or the Exchange Management Shell to manage messages in queues. For more information about messages in queues, see Message properties.

This topic describes how to perform the following procedures on messages in queues:

  • Remove messages: You can remove messages from queues with our without a non-delivery report to the sender (also known as an NDR, delivery status notification, DSN, or bounce message).
  • Suspend messages: When you suspend a message, you prevent delivery of the message. The message won't leave the queue until you resume the message.
  • Resume messages: You can resume a message that currently has a status of Suspended. By resuming a message, you enable delivery of the message.
  • Redirect messages: You can drain messages from all the delivery queues on a Mailbox server, and transfer those messages to another Mailbox server.

For information about exporting messages from queues, see Export messages from queues.

What do you need to know before you begin?

  • Estimated time to complete each procedure: 5 minutes

  • To find and open the Exchange Toolbox, use one of the following procedures:

    • Windows 10: Click Start > All Apps > Microsoft Exchange Server <Version> > Exchange Toolbox.

    • Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1: On the Start screen, open the Apps view by clicking the down arrow near the lower-left corner or swiping up from the middle of the screen. The Exchange Toolbox shortcut is in a group named Microsoft Exchange Server <Version>.

    • Windows Server 2012: Use any of the following methods:

      • On the Start screen, click an empty area, and type Exchange Toolbox.
      • On the desktop or the Start screen, press Windows key + Q. In the Search charm, type Exchange Toolbox.
      • On the desktop or the Start screen, move your cursor to the upper-right corner, or swipe left from the right edge of the screen to show the charms. Click the Search charm, and type Exchange Toolbox.

      When the shortcut appears in the results, you can select it.

  • To learn how to open the Exchange Management Shell in your on-premises Exchange organization, see Open the Exchange Management Shell.

  • For more information about using filters and identity values in the Exchange Management Shell, see Find queues and messages in queues in the Exchange Management Shell.

  • You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Queues" entry in the Mail flow permissions topic.

  • For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts in the Exchange admin center.

Tip

Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection.

Remove messages from queues

Note:

A message that's being sent to multiple recipients might be located in more than one queue. To remove a message from more than one queue in a single operation, you need to use a filter. For more information, see Properties of messages in queues and Message filtering parameters.

Use Queue Viewer to remove messages from queues

  1. In the Exchange Toolbox, in the Mail flow tools section, double-click Queue Viewer to open the tool in a new window.

  2. In Queue Viewer, click the Messages tab. A list of all messages on the server that you're connected to is displayed. To adjust the action to a single queue, click the Queues tab, double-click the queue name, and then click the Server\Queue tab that appears.

  3. Select one or more messages from the list, right-click, and then select Remove Messages (with NDR) or Remove Messages (without NDR). A dialog box appears that confirms the selected action and displays, Do you want to continue?. Click Yes.

  4. To remove all messages from a particular queue, click the Queues tab. Select a queue, right-click, and then select Remove Messages (with NDR) or Remove Messages (without NDR). A dialog box appears that confirms the selected action and displays, Do you want to continue?. Click Yes.

    Note

    If you're working with a filtered list, the displayed page may not include all items in the filter. In this case, a prompt appears that displays: This action will affect all items on this page. To expand the scope of this action to include all items in this filter, check the following box before you click OK.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to remove messages

To remove messages from queues, use the following syntax.

Remove-Message <-Identity MessageIdentity | -Filter "MessageFilter"> -WithNDR <$true | $false>

This example removes messages in the queues that have a subject of "Win Big" without sending an NDR.

Remove-Message -Filter "Subject -eq 'Win Big'" -WithNDR $false

This example removes the message with the message ID 3 from the Unreachable queue on server named Mailbox01 and sends an NDR.

Remove-Message -Identity Mailbox01\Unreachable\3 -WithNDR $true

For more information, see Remove-Message

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully removed messages from queues, use either of the following procedures:

  • In Queue Viewer, select the queue or create a filter to verify the messages no longer exist.

  • In the Exchange Management Shell, replace MessageFilter with the filter that you used, or <QueueIdentity> with the identity of the queue, and run either of the following commands to verify the messages no longer exist:

    Get-Message -Filter "MessageFilter"

    Or

    Get-Message -Queue <QueueIdentity>

    For more information, see Get-Message.

Suspend messages in queues

Notes:

  • A message that's being sent to multiple recipients might be located in more than one queue. To suspend a message in more than one queue in a single operation, you need to use a filter. For more information, see Properties of messages in queues and Message filtering parameters.

  • If you suspend a message that's in the act of being transmitted to the next hop, delivery of the message will continue, and the message status will be PendingSuspend. If delivery fails, the message will re-enter the queue, and then the message will be suspended.

Use Queue Viewer to suspend messages

  1. In the Exchange Toolbox, in the Mail flow tools section, double-click Queue Viewer to open the tool in a new window.

  2. In Queue Viewer, click the Messages tab. A list of all messages on the server that you're connected to is displayed. To limit the view to a single queue, click the Queues tab, double-click the queue name, and then click the Server\Queue tab that appears.

  3. Select one or more messages, right-click, and then select Suspend.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to suspend messages

To suspend messages, use the following syntax:

Suspend-Message <-Identity MessageIdentity | -Filter "MessageFilter">

This example suspends the message with the message ID 3 in the Unreachable queue on server named Mailbox01.

Suspend-Message -Identity Mailbox01\Unreachable\3

This example suspends all messages in all queues on the local server that are from any sender in the domain contoso.com.

Suspend-Message -Filter "FromAddress -like '*contoso.com'"

This example suspends all messages in the delivery queue for contoso.com on the server named Mailbox01.

Get-Queue Mailbox01\contoso.com | Get-Message | Suspend-Message

This example suspends all messages in all queues on the local server.

Get-Queue | Get-Message | Suspend-Message

For more information, see Suspend-Message.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully suspended messages in queues, use either of the following procedures:

  • In Queue Viewer, select the queue or create a filter to verify messages are suspended.

  • In the Exchange Management Shell, replace MessageFilter with the filter that you used, or <QueueIdentity> with the identity of the queue, and run either of the following commands to verify that the messages are suspended:

    Get-Message -Filter "MessageFilter"

    Or

    Get-Message -Queue <QueueIdentity>

    For more information, see Get-Message.

Resume messages in queues

Notes:

  • You can only resume messages that have a status of Suspended.
  • The status of the queue that holds the messages affects the delivery of the message. For example, if you resume suspended messages in a queue that has a status of Suspended, the messages can't be delivered until you resume the queue. For more information about resuming queues, see Resume queues.

Use Queue Viewer to resume messages

  1. In the Exchange Toolbox, in the Mail flow tools section, double-click Queue Viewer to open the tool in a new window.

  2. In Queue Viewer, click the Messages tab. A list of all messages on the server that you're connected to is displayed. To adjust the action to focus on a single queue, click the Queues tab, double-click the queue name, and then click the Server\Queue tab that appears.

  3. Click Create Filter, and enter your filter expression as follows:

    1. Select Status from the message property drop-down list.
    2. Select Equals from the comparison operator drop-down list.
    3. Select Suspended from the value drop-down list.

  4. Click Apply Filter. All messages that have a status of Suspended are displayed.

  5. Select one or more messages from the list, right-click, and select Resume.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to resume messages

To resume messages, use the following syntax:

Resume-Message <-Identity MessageIdentity | -Filter "MessageFilter">

This example resumes all messages being sent from any sender in the contoso.com domain.

Resume-Message -Filter "FromAddress -like '*contoso.com'"

This example resumes the message with the message ID 3 in the Unreachable queue on server named Mailbox01.

Resume-Message -Identity Mailbox01\Unreachable\3

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully resumed messages in queues, use either of the following procedures:

  • In Queue Viewer, select the queue or create a filter to verify the that messages are no longer suspended.

  • In the Exchange Management Shell, replace MessageFilter with the filter that you used, or <QueueIdentity> with the identity of the queue, and run either of the following commands to verify that the messages are no longer suspended:

    Get-Message -Filter "MessageFilter"

    Or

    Get-Message -Queue <QueueIdentity>

    For more information, see Get-Message.

If you can't find the messages in any queues on the server, this likely indicates the message was successfully delivered to the next hop.

Redirect messages in queues

Redirecting messages drains all active messages from delivery queues on the source Mailbox server and routes them to the target Mailbox server. The messages are queued for delivery and routed to the next hop.

Notes:

  • Only active messages are redirected.
  • Shadow queues and messages in the poison message queue aren't redirected.
  • The source Mailbox server doesn't accept new messages while messages are being redirected.
  • You can only use the Exchange Management Shell to redirect messages.

Use the Exchange Management Shell to redirect messages

To redirect messages, use the following syntax:

Redirect-Message -Server <ServerIdentity> -Target <ServerFQDN>

This example redirects messages from all delivery queues on the server named Mailbox01 to the server named Mailbox02.contoso.com.

Redirect-Message -Server Mailbox01 -Target Mailbox02.contoso.com

For more information, see Redirect-Message.

How do you know this worked?

To verify that you have successfully redirected messages in queues, use either of the following procedures:

  • In Queue Viewer, verify that the Message Count value on delivery queues on the source server is empty or decreasing.

  • In the Exchange Management Shell, run the following command to verify that the MessageCount property value for the delivery queues on the source server is decreasing or empty.

    Get-Queue