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Want to Recover Deleted User Mailboxes in Exchange 2016? Solution is Here!

INTRODUCTION

There are chances that you delete your crucial data items from your Exchange Server accidentally. When you realized your mistake, you definitely want to get back your deleted mailboxes. If you are well familiar with the Microsoft Exchange, you must know the Exchange data becomes dismounted after deletion. There are various methods available to recover deleted user mailboxes in Exchange 2016.

But, the deleted mailboxes will available in the database only for 14 days. Hence, you can recover the deleted user Exchange mailboxes by creating the user objects then you can connect the user account to the disconnected mailbox within the particular time period. First, let’s discuss how Exchange Server manages the user mailboxes after deletion.

How Deleted Items are managed by Exchange Server?

Usually, Exchange Server keeps the purged user mailboxes in the Deleted Items folder only for 30 days. After that, these are removed from the respective folder but exist in the database for 14 days. Hence, Exchange provides a total 45 days to recover the deleted user mailboxes. If this period expires, it will quite impossible to recover the deleted mailbox items. So, it is necessary to look up to customize the retention duration. Set Exchange 2016 Mailbox Retention Duration

Set Exchange 2016 Mailbox Retention Duration

The retention policy is the main factor to recover the deleted Exchange mailbox items. But, it is fixed for only 14 days by default. However, Exchange administrators are allowed to

  • At first, launch the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) & click on Servers in features pane.

  • Then, you can choose the desired database tab & select a database.
  • After that, click on the Pencil icon or double-click on the database name for editing the settings.

  • Finally, click on the Limits option & modify the duration of days given under “keep deleted items for (days),” which is by default 14 days.

How to Recover Deleted User Mailboxes Exchange 2016?

Deleted items can be recovered by using either PowerShell command or Exchange Admin Center. We will discuss here both procedures one by one.:

Way # 1: With the Help of PowerShell Command

Retention period can also be extended through the Exchange Management Shell, which helps to recover the deleted user mailboxes. Run the following commands to restore single and multiple mailboxes:

For Single User Mailbox Recovery
“Set-Mailbox -Identity “John Russell” -RetainDeletedItemsFor 30”
For Multiple User Mailboxes Recovery
“Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter {(RecipientTypeDetails -eq ‘UserMailbox’)} | Set-Mailbox -RetainDeletedItemsFor 30”

Way # 2: Through Exchange Admin Center

It is another technique to restore the Exchange mailbox items. In this process, you need to log in as an administrator in Exchange Server and perform the following steps:

  • At first, go to the Exchange System Manager and locate the mailbox that is disconnected from the database.
  • After that, click on the Mailboxes under the mailbox store.
  • If the mailbox is not already marked as disconnected then you need to right-click on the Mailboxes object.
  • In the next step, click on the Cleanup Agent option.
  • Now, right click on the deleted mailbox, and then hit on the Reconnect option.
  • Finally, you need to choose the appropriate user from the dialog box that appears and click on the OK button.

Recover Deleted Mailbox with Professional Exchange Recovery Tool

If you have deleted a large number of mailboxes accidentally or due to corruption in the .edb file, then manual procedures are not suitable for you. In this case, you can choose the reliable third-party software like SysTools Exchange Recovery Software. This application is designed to recover deleted user mailboxes in Exchange 2016. It takes only a few times to restore any number of deleted or corrupted mailboxes from Exchange Server. Also, this Exchange Recovery tool does not need any external help of guidance to restore the mailboxes. So, it is suitable for both technical and non-technical persons.

Wrapping Up

Sometimes users delete their important emails and information from Exchange Server and ask for help to recover the deleted items. So, there is two different manual ways PowerShell command and via Exchange, Management Center to recover deleted user mailbox in Exchange 2016 discussed in this post. However, for the major case, a trustworthy third party SysTools Exchange Recovery Tool is advised to use.