Big discrepancey between mailbox sixe on server vs local

Tom Hawes 21 Reputation points
2022-01-06T10:31:47.42+00:00

Hi,

I have a user who's local mailbox size is around 2.5GB, but the server size is around 8GB.

They regularly clear old e-mails and archive so I think the local size is correct, and for some reason e-mail aren't being removed from the server data when moved/deleted

any ideas what could be causing this or how I resolve it?

We are on exchange 2016 and working on office 2013, although we will be moving to Office 2016 soon (hopefully next week) so I'm wondering if that my resolve it anyway?

Thanks

Tom

Outlook Management
Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server: A family of Microsoft client/server messaging and collaboration software.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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Accepted answer
  1. Andy David - MVP 142.2K Reputation points MVP
    2022-01-18T16:19:44.637+00:00

    You could always just delete from the Outlook side:
    166102-image.png

    If that is not an option:
    Use search-mailbox.
    Example:
    Change yours to 24 months
    and use the -EstimateResultOnly switch first to see how much data is being removed

    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/search-mailbox?view=exchange-ps 

    Search-Mailbox -Identity test@test.comm -SearchQuery "(Received:01/12/2017..$((get-date).AddMonths(-7).ToString("MM/dd/yyy")))" -deletecontet

    https://serverfault.com/questions/1028804/powershell-script-to-delete-emails-from-mailbox-older-than-an-7-month-or-specifi

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4 additional answers

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  1. Andy David - MVP 142.2K Reputation points MVP
    2022-01-06T12:55:57.017+00:00
  2. Andy David - MVP 142.2K Reputation points MVP
    2022-01-06T13:42:33.527+00:00

    lol!

    OK, maybe recreate the Outlook profile? The OST maybe showing the incorrect value. Otherwise, the server side value is the correct one :)

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  3. Aaron Xue-MSFT 2,581 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2022-01-07T08:42:09.203+00:00

    Hi @Tom Hawes ,

    When an item is deleted from the Deleted Items default folder. The item wouldn’t be deleted directly.

    And it will be placed in the recoverable items folder. The recoverable items folder to users using outlook, owa, or other email clients.

    You need to assign the Search-Mailbox and Mailbox Import Export to the administrator account first.

    163102-6.png

    Then you could run below command in ems to delete the emails in recoverable items folder immediately. 

    Search-Mailbox -Identity username -SearchDumpsterOnly -DeleteContent

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  4. Dinker 0 Reputation points
    2023-11-22T21:31:20.5266667+00:00
    1. Goto Outlook File menu
    2. Select Account settings, select the appropriate account (if you have multiple)
    3. Click on Change button
    4. Click on "More Settings" button
    5. In the "Exchange Account " screen, Select "Advanced" tab
    6. Uncheck "Use Cached Exchange mode"
    7. Close all the windows and restart Outlook
    8. This will bring down all the items Server to outlook, then you can archive or clean Outlook folders.
    9. if you want caching again, please revert the step in #6.
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