You May Unable to Export Calendar Items to a PST That Were Returned by a Discovery or Multi-Mailbox Search

Applies to Exchange 2010

SYMPTOMS

1. After performing a Discovery Search (also known as a Multimailbox Search) in Exchange 2010, you cannot export the Calendar items that were returned by the Discovery Search to a .PST file.

2. This happens when you use Exchange Control Panel (ECP) to do a Discovery Search and the results are sent to the Discovery Search Mailbox.

3. This also happens if you do a Multi-Mailbox Search using New-MailboxSearch in the Exchange Command Shell and send the results ton a target mailbox other than the Discovery Mailbox.

4. The Calendar item search results will usually appear in a folder that is called the Calendar folder in the Discovery Mailbox or the target mailbox.  Or, if you choose De-Duplication, the calendar items may appear along with all the other results in one large folder.

5. When you try to export the results of the Multi-Mailbox Search to a .PST file, all items are exported except the Calendar items.

6. If you try to copy and paste the Calendar items to the .PST file, the items open instead and they open up as Messages rather than Calendar items.

7. The same behavior happens in On-Premise and Office 365 and Live@EDU (Outlook Live).

 

CAUSE

1. When you perform a Discovery Search or Multi-Mailbox Search, the results are sent to folders without a content class.

2. If you try to copy and paste the Calendar items to the .PST file, the items open instead and they open up as Messages rather than Calendar items. This is because they are converted from ipm.appointment (Calendar items) to ipm.note (messages).

RESOLUTION

You can manually create a PST, add a folder with the Calendar content class and move the Calendar items to the PST to preserve the message class.

OR

You can create a Calendar folder (a folder that has the Calendar content class and looks like a regular Calendar folder in Outlook)  in the results folder in the Target mailbox or Discovery Search Mailbox and move the Calendar items there from the regular folder to the new Calendar folder.  Then you can export the entire result set of folders in the Target mailbox or the Discovery Search mailbox to the .PST and you will see the Calendar items appear correctly in the .PST file.

Written by: Paul DeFazio,, Senior Support Escalation Engineer, Enterprise Communications Services, Microsoft and Bob Want, Senior Support Escalation Engineer, Enterprise Communications Services, Microsoft

Technically Reviewed by Michael Barta, Senior Support Escalation Engineer, Enterprise Communications Services, Microsoft and Jon Bradley, Senior Technical Support Lead, Enterprise Communications Services, Microsoft