Remove a public folder in Exchange 2013
Applies to: Exchange Server 2013
You may need to remove public folders that are no longer being used in your organization. To help determine which public folders should be removed, see View statistics for public folders and public folder items.
What do you need to know before you begin?
Estimated time to complete: 5 minutes.
You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folders" entry in the Sharing and collaboration permissions topic.
You can't delete a mail-enabled public folder. Before you can delete it, you must first disable email for the public folder. For more information, see Mail-enable or mail-disable a public folder.
For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the procedures in this topic, see Keyboard shortcuts for the Exchange admin center in Exchange 2013.
Tip
Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at Exchange Server.
Use the EAC to remove a public folder
Navigate to Public folders > Public folders.
In the list view, select the public folder you want to delete. Note that clicking on the folder name will display sub-folders within that folder, if there are any. At that point you can click to select a specific sub-folder to remove.
To delete a folder or sub-folder, click anywhere on the folder's row except the underlined name of the folder, and then click Delete
. If you click the underlined name of the folder, the Delete option will not be available to select.
A warning box displays asking if you're sure you want to delete the public folder. Click Yes to continue.
Use the Shell to delete a public folder
This example deletes the public folder Help Desk\Resolved. This command assumes that the Resolved public folder doesn't have any subfolders.
Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\Help Desk\Resolved"
This example tests the previous command without making any modifications.
Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\HelpDesk\Resolved" -WhatIf
This example removes the public folder Marketing and all its subfolders because the command runs recursively.
Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\Marketing" -Recurse:$True
For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Remove-PublicFolder.