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Connect or Restore a Disabled Mailbox

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Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

A disconnected mailbox is a mailbox object in the Exchange store that isn't associated with an Active Directory user account.

There are two types of disconnected mailboxes:

  • Disabled mailboxes   When a mailbox is disconnected or removed by using the Disable-Mailbox or Remove-Mailbox cmdlet, Exchange retains the deleted mailbox, and the mailbox is switched to a disabled state. With disabled mailboxes, you can recover mailbox data without having to restore the entire mailbox database. Disabled mailboxes are retained in the mailbox database until the deleted mailbox retention period expires or until the mailbox is permanently deleted.

  • Soft-deleted mailboxes   When mailboxes are moved from a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) database to any other database, Exchange doesn't fully delete the mailbox from the source database upon completion of the move. Instead, the mailbox in the source mailbox database is switched to a soft-deleted state. With soft-deleted mailboxes, you can use the MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet set to access mailbox data during a mailbox restore operation. Soft-deleted mailboxes are retained in the source database until either the deleted mailbox retention period expires or until the Remove-StoreMailbox cmdlet is used to purge the mailbox. For more information, see Restore a Soft-Deleted Mailbox.

Disabled mailboxes remain in the Exchange database for the duration specified in the deleted mailbox retention settings for the mailbox database. By default, disabled mailboxes are retained for 30 days. During this retention period, a disabled mailbox can be recovered by connecting it to a new or existing Active Directory user account.

Looking for other management tasks related to disconnected mailboxes? Check out Managing Disconnected Mailboxes.

What Do You Want to Do?

  • Use the EMC to connect a disabled mailbox

  • Use the Shell to connect a disabled mailbox

  • Use the Shell to restore a disabled mailbox

Use the EMC to connect a disabled mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

Note

Only disconnected mailboxes that have a disabled status are displayed in the EMC. Soft-deleted mailboxes aren't displayed.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Recipient Configuration > Disconnected Mailbox.

  2. In the result pane, select the disabled mailbox that you want to reconnect.

  3. In the action pane, click Connect.

  4. On the Introduction page, select one of the following to specify the mailbox type for the mailbox you're connecting:

    • User Mailbox   Click this button to connect the mailbox as a mailbox owned by a user to send and receive e-mail messages. User mailboxes can't be used for resource scheduling.

      The Active Directory account associated with a user mailbox must reside in the same forest as the Exchange server. To use an account in a trusted forest, select Linked Mailbox.

    • Room Mailbox or Equipment Mailbox   Click one of these buttons to connect the mailbox as a mailbox that will be used as a location resource for scheduling meetings (room mailbox) or a shared resource (equipment mailbox) that isn't location specific. Room and equipment mailboxes can be included in meeting requests as resources and can be configured to automatically process incoming requests.

      Note

      You can connect a room or equipment mailbox only to a disabled user account. Therefore, the Select Recipient dialog box that you use to select a user account on the Mailbox Settings page of this wizard will display only a list of disabled user accounts in the Active Directory forest.

    • Linked Mailbox   Click this button to connect the mailbox as a user mailbox that's accessed by a user in a separate, trusted forest. To store the mailbox information, you must select a user account in the forest in which the Exchange server resides.

      Linked mailboxes might be required for organizations that choose to deploy Exchange in a resource forest. Using the resource forest scenario, you can centralize Exchange in a single forest, while allowing access to the Exchange organization with user accounts in one or more trusted forests.

  5. On the Mailbox Settings page, configure the following settings:

    • Matching User   Click this button to have Exchange locate a matching user object in Active Directory. Click Browse to open the Select User dialog box. If Exchange locates a matching user, it will appear in this dialog box. Select the user, and then click OK.

      If Exchange can't find a matching user, you must click Existing User. To locate a user account that matches the mailbox object, Exchange uses the LegacyExchangeDN and DisplayName attributes of the Exchange store mailbox object.

    • Existing User   Click this button if you want to connect the mailbox to a user other than the matching user. Click Browse to see a list of users available in Active Directory. The list contains only users that don't have an associated mailbox.

      Note

      If you're connecting a room, equipment, or linked mailbox, the Select User dialog box displays only users that are disabled in Active Directory. If you're connecting a user mailbox, the Select User dialog box displays only users that are enabled in Active Directory.

    • Alias   Use this box to type an alias for the mailbox.

    • Retention Policy   Select this check box to assign a retention policy to the mailbox. Click Browse to select a policy from a list of available retention policies. For more information, see Understanding Messaging Records Management.

    • Exchange ActiveSync mailbox policy   Select this check box to assign a Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync policy to the mailbox. Click Browse to select a policy from a list of available Exchange ActiveSync policies. For more information, see Understanding Exchange ActiveSync Mailbox Policies.

  6. If you're connecting a linked mailbox, use the Master Account page to configure the following settings for the mailbox:

    • Trusted forest or domain   Click Browse to open the Select Forest dialog box. Select the forest that contains the master account, and then click OK. This enables the Browse button next to the Linked domain controller check box.

    • Use the following Window user account to access linked domain controller   Select this check box if you want to specify a different user account. To access the domain controller in the linked forest, you can use a user account other than the one you're currently logged on as. Select the User name and Password check boxes to type the credentials of the user account.

    • Linked domain controller   Click Browse to open the Select Domain Controller dialog box. Select the domain controller you want, and then click OK. Selecting a valid linked domain controller enables the Browse button next to the Linked master account check box.

    • Linked master account   Click Browse to open the Select Master Account dialog box. Select the user account that you want to use as the master account, and then click OK.

  7. On the Connect Mailbox page, review your configuration settings. Click Connect to associate the disconnected mailbox with the Active Directory user that you selected on the Mailbox Settings page. Click Back to make configuration changes.

  8. On the Completion page, review the following, and then click Finish to close the wizard:

    • A status of Completed indicates that the wizard completed the task successfully.

    • A status of Failed indicates that the task wasn't completed. If the task fails, review the summary for an explanation, and then click Back to make any configuration changes.

Use the Shell to connect a disabled mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example connects the mailbox for John Evans that resides on the mailbox database MBXDB02. In addition, this command bypasses the messaging records management (MRM) policy warnings for e-mail clients using versions of Microsoft Outlook earlier than Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "John Evans" -Database "MBXDB02" -User "John Evans" -ManagedFolderMailboxPolicyAllowed

This example connects a linked mailbox.

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "John Evans" -Database "MBXDB02" -LinkedDomainController FabrikamDC01 -LinkedMasterAccount john@fabrikam.com

This example connects an equipment mailbox for CAR001 that resides on the database MBXResourceDB.

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "CAR001" -Database "MBXResourceDB" -Equipment -User "CAR001"

This example connects a room mailbox for a conference room (ConfRm212) that resides on the database MBXResourceDB.

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "ConfRm212" -Database "MBXResourceDB" -Room -User "Conference Room 212"

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Connect-Mailbox.

Use the Shell to restore a disabled mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

Note

You can't use the EMC to restore a disabled mailbox.

Note

To create a restore request, you must use the DisplayName, LegacyDN, or MailboxGUID values to identify the disabled mailbox.

  1. Use the Get-MailboxStatistics cmdlet to find the display name, legacy distinguished name (DN), or mailbox GUID of the disabled mailbox.

    This example returns the LegacyDN, DisplayName, MailboxGUID, and DisconnectReason values for all mailboxes on mailbox database MBD01 that have a disconnect reason of Disabled.

    Get-MailboxStatistics -Database MBD01 | Where { $_.DisconnectReason -eq "Disabled" } | Format-List LegacyDN, DisplayName, MailboxGUID, DisconnectReason

  2. Use the New-MailboxRestoreRequest cmdlet to create the restore request.

    This example restores the disabled mailbox that has the mailbox GUID 1d20855f-fd54-4681-98e6-e249f7326ddd on mailbox database MDB01 to the target mailbox Ayla. This example assumes that the legacy DN of the target mailbox matches the legacy DN of the source mailbox.

    New-MailboxRestoreRequest -SourceDatabase "MDB01" -SourceStoreMailbox 1d20855f-fd54-4681-98e6-e249f7326ddd -TargetMailbox Ayla

    This example restores the disabled mailbox Tony Smith to the target mailbox tony@contoso.com on the target mailbox database MDB01. The AllowLegacyDNMismatch parameter is used so the source mailbox can be restored to a mailbox that doesn't have the same legacy DN value.

    New-MailboxRestoreRequst -SourceDatabase "MDB01" -SourceStoreMailbox "Tony Smith" -TargetMailbox tony@contoso.com -AllowLegacyDNMismatch

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see the following topics:

Other Tasks

After the mailbox is connected, we recommend that you configure anti-spam features. For detailed steps, see Configure Anti-Spam Features on a Mailbox.

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