When doing some maintenance tasks on Microsoft Exchange Server, you may accidentally delete a mailbox. At times, users perform mailbox deletion to free storage space after an employee leaves the office. Nevertheless, the deletion is not permanent as the removed mailbox remains on the Exchange server for 30 days of the retention period.
So, the good news is that if you feel the need to restore the deleted mailbox, you have ample time to do so. Right here, we will discuss the methods to recover the deleted mailbox before connecting it to an active directory user account.
Restore from Backup
If the mailbox is deleted, you will have to restore it from a recent backup. Before that, you will have to create an empty mailbox so that you can restore the items from the backup to the new mailbox. It is therefore wise to have regular backups of your exchange database and the contained mailboxes. Using the most recent backup will be the best to restore your deleted mailbox.
Manual Recovery of the deleted mailbox
When you delete the mailbox, it also deletes the Active Directory user account linked with it. The Exchange Server switches the deleted mailbox to a disabled state before retaining it in the mailbox database until the 30-day expiry period is over.
By the time, purging or complete deletion of the mailbox from the Exchange takes place, you can restore its contents with the help of Exchange Management Shell. Prior to that, you will have to connect it to an Active Directory user account.
You can do this by using the Exchange Administration Center (EAC) or Exchange Management Shell (EMS). So, you will start with the connection and then proceed with the recovery.
Connecting a deleted mailbox using EAC
The steps below will guide you on how to connect your user account to a deleted Exchange mailbox. You can use the same procedure to connect to the deleted resource, shared, and linked mailboxes
- Launch the Exchange Admin Center
- Navigate to Recipients -> Mailboxes
- Click the three dots (…) next to More
- Click Connect a Mailbox
- This will display a list of mailboxes, disconnected on the selected Exchange Server.
- The list also includes all the disconnected mailboxes – deleted, disabled, and soft-deleted mailboxes.
- Find and click the deleted mailbox that you want to connect to an Active Directory user account.
- Click Connect
- In the next window that asks you to confirm the connection with the mailbox, click Yes
- You will find user accounts that are not mail-enabled.
- Click a specific user that you wish to connect the removed mailbox and click OK
- This will connect your selected user account to the deleted mailbox
Also read – How to Access Exchange Admin Center in all Exchange Server Versions?
Recover the deleted Mailbox Using Exchange Management Shell
You can use these EMS commands to reconnect the deleted mailbox to an active user account.
1. Identify the Deleted Mailbox
$dbs = Get-MailboxDatabase
$dbs | foreach {Get-MailboxStatistics -Database $_.DistinguishedName} | where {$_.DisconnectReason -eq “Disabled”} | Format-Table DisplayName, Database, DisconnectDate
2. Reconnect the Mailbox
Connect-Mailbox -Identity “Guid of Mailbox“ -Database “Database Name” -User “Active Directory User Name” -Alias Alias
3. Verify the connection
To verify the connection of a deleted mailbox with a user account, use any of the following EMS commands:
Get-User <identity> “Active Directory User Name” or
Get-Mailbox <identity> “Active Directory User Name”
If these manual methods do not come to fruition, you can use Stellar Repair for Exchange, a widely used Exchange EDB recovery tool.
Use Stellar Repair for Exchange to restore deleted mailbox
The manual method to recover deleted Exchange mailboxes is cumbersome, time-consuming, and often, error-prone. You will need acute technical expertise for the successful execution of this entire process. A comparably easier, quicker, and more accurate method is to use an automated Exchange EDB recovery tool – Stellar Repair for Exchange.
The software can prove instrumental in restoring deleted mailboxes and mailbox items from the offline or dismounted Exchange database. It will also save the recovered deleted mailboxes to a PST file or export them to a live Exchange Server database directly. Here are some of the other prominent features of this automated tool:
- Recover all the intentionally or accidentally deleted mailboxes and emails
- Retrieves mailbox items from corrupt EDB files
- Restores data from virus or ransomware-affected Exchange server
- Exports the recovered mailboxes directly to the live Exchange Server with the least downtime
- Exports the restored mailboxes directly to Office 365
- Repairs damaged archive mailboxes
- Saves the recovered archive mailboxes to PST, PDF, HTML, RTF, and several other formats
- Lets you create and review a complete log report to scan through the repair process
- Can recover and repair even large-sized EDB files
You can use the free trial version of the Exchange EDB recovery tool or contact Stellar Info to buy a paid version for satisfactory recovery of the deleted mailboxes from the Exchange database.
Conclusion
You may have deleted Exchange database mailboxes accidentally or intentionally. In either case, if you want to recover them, you should do it within 30 days, as the Exchange Server will purge the deleted mailboxes after this retention duration expires.
To restore a mailbox, you need to first connect the deleted mailbox to an active directory user account associated with the mailbox. This is possible with the help of Exchange Admin Center or Exchange Management Shell.
After connecting the deleted mailbox to a mail-disabled user account, the next task is to recover the deleted mailbox and export it to an existing mailbox. You can execute this task with the help of EMS commands.
This entire method can help you to serve your purpose but it is too time-consuming and error prone. It also needs you to possess detailed technical knowledge.
A comparably better, more accurate, and easier method is to use Stellar Repair for Exchange, a renowned Exchange EDB recovery tool. It can help you to recover deleted mailboxes in the Exchange Server in the least possible downtime.