Ways to Reconnect Disabled Archive Mailbox Exchange 2013 Easily

After migration, many administrators find that the personal archives of employees have not been migrated. It requires different steps to recover the personal archive data and associating it to the new existing mailbox. One can try to reconnect disabled archive mailbox Exchange 2013 during the retention period.

Exchange server mailbox database(EDB) saves the disconnected personal archive for up to 30 days. This post describes all the steps and techniques needed to connect disconnected archive mailbox Exchange 2013. Repeat the steps precisely to avoid any data loss.

What is a Disabled Archive?

Administrators may disable a personal archive on account of troubleshooting. It could be because mailboxes are being moved to an Exchange version that does not support personal archives. During this, the user account in company’s Active directory gets deleted but the archives remain in Exchange mailbox database. One can try to connect a disabled mailbox Exchange 2013 to get access to their old personal archived emails.

It can be from a person on-premise archive or stored online on the cloud server. When disabled, the personal archive is saved in a disconnected state on the server. One can use Exchange Admin Center to recover the disconnected personal archive.

Instant Solution: If users find difficulty to reconnect disconnected archive mailbox in Exchange 2013 in a simple way, for that users can use the Exchange Server Recovery Software which support offline / dismounted Exchange database file. Users can easily load the archive mailboxes and export directly to the Live Exchange Server in a simplified manner. Users can also recover offline .edb file from corruption and extract Exchange EDB to PST, EML, MBOX, MSG, HTML, PDF file formats & Office 365.

Method to Reconnect Disabled Archive Mailbox Exchange 2013

Following are the steps involved in reconnecting a disabled mailbox archive from a user’s account saved in Exchange server 2013:

Step 1: Preparation Phase

• The administrator must have required permissions on the server machine to perform this procedure. The Recipient Provisioning Permissions is needed to connect a disabled mailbox Exchange 2013.
• In Exchange Management Shell, run the command Get-User cmdlet to verify that the new mailbox that will access the personal archive, is present in the company’s Active Directory.
• Run the following command to make sure that the disabled account is still present in the Exchange server 2013.
  Get-MailboxDatabase | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.DisplayName -eq “<display name>” } | fl DisplayName,Database,DisconnectReason
• Here DisconnectReason has to be Disabled in order to connect disconnected archive mailbox Exchange 2013

Step 2: Reconnection Phase

• First, open the Exchange Admin Center(EAC) on the Exchange 2013 server machine.
• Then, go to Recipients>>Mailboxes.
  Next, click More…>>Connect A Mailbox.
• Then, select the disabled mailbox that needs to be reconnected and click Connect.
• If asked to confirm to connect-mailbox Exchange 2013, just click Yes.

Step 3: Testing Phase

• To confirm that the disabled mailbox has been reconnected successfully, go back to EAC.
• Then, click Recipients and go to the page where the mailbox is listed.
• Next, click Refresh verify that the Exchange 2013 connected mailbox is listed.
• In Active Directory Users and Computers, right-click on the user account that was disabled.
• Then, click Properties and select the General tab.
• Verify that the Email box is populated with the email address of the reconnected mailbox.

Limitations of Manual Process

Technical Process: This is a difficult process that even administrators require technical assistance in. It can not be undertaken by someone with no knowledge of Exchange Admin Center and granting permission in it.
Lengthy Process: It is a very long and time-consuming process to reconnect disabled archive mailbox exchange 2013
Irrelevant: It seems irrelevant to access users’ personal archive on the same machine from an old account to a new one.

Use Automated Solution

The manual process should be able to retrieve an old archive easily with the help of a system administrator. For those looking to access emails directly, one can go for an automated solution. The Exchange Mailbox to PST tool provides all the benefits to extract complete disconnected archive mailbox to pst without data loss.

Following are the prerequisites for using this tool:

• It requires Exchange administrative credentials to perform any migration.
• It requires a running Live Exchange server environment on the server machine.
• Outlook 2016 and below must be installed with a dummy POP3 account configured.
• The tool is compatible with all versions of Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010 or 2007

Conclusion

Every user has a personal mailbox archive stored on their local machine somewhere. It is a collection of email data that they deemed important to store separately. Or to free some space for more incoming messages. After a migration, one can try to reconnect disabled archive mailbox Exchange 2013 manually. This can be done with the help of a network or system administrator with sufficient privileges and access to EAC. An automated solution has also been discussed to make the task easier and more direct. Read about each and choose the best option available.