inactive mailboxes

Question

Hi All,

I have a few inactive mailboxes under a retention policy in the Microsoft Purview Portal (Data Lifecycle Management → Retention policies → RP01). Let's say the policy is named RP01, and its GUID is u98k89mn-9876-ht68-mjki-kj78oophgy768.

Exporting Inactive Mailboxes to CSV:

I want to export all my inactive mailboxes with the fields DisplayName, PrimarySMTPAddress, and WhenSoftDeleted to a CSV file. Is the following syntax correct?

Get-Mailbox -InactiveMailboxOnly -ResultSize Unlimited | Select-Object DisplayName, PrimarySMTPAddress, WhenSoftDeleted | Export-Csv C:\inactivemailboxes.csv -NoTypeInformation

Removing Email Addresses from the Retention Policy:

I have inactive mailboxes email addresses listed in a CSV file, and I want to remove them from the retention policy. Is the following syntax correct? i have csv file in the below format.

users 
******@contoso.com 
******@contoso.com

Import-Csv C:\mailboxes.csv | ForEach-Object { 
Set-Mailbox -Identity $_.users -ExcludeFromOrgHolds u98k89mn-9876-ht68-mjki-kj78oophgy768}

Answer 1

Hello, @Glenn Maxwell,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A platform!

Your syntax for both tasks look mostly correct, I just provide some test results and official documents to help you finish your goals more efficient.

1.Exporting Inactive Mailboxes to CSV

After running the command you provided above, as the screenshots shown, all the inactive mailboxes with the fields DisplayName, PrimarySMTPAddress, and WhenSoftDeleted are exported to a CSV file.

2.Removing Email Addresses from the Retention Policy

For removing email addresses from the retention policy using a CSV file, your syntax is also correct, which can be concluded from the official document.

If you want to learn more about how to delete an inactive mailbox, please refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/delete-an-inactive-mailbox#remove-an-inactive-mailbox-from-a-retention-policy.

Moreover, as phemanth said, to make sure the CSV file can be found, please make your CSV file (C:\mailboxes.csv) has a header named users:

users 
******@contoso.com 
******@contoso.com

To end up, although your syntax both correct, please ensure that you have the necessary permissions to run these commands. Should you need more help on this, you can feel free to post back. 

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Thank you for your support and understanding.

Best Wishes,

Alex Zhang

Answer 2

@Glenn Maxwell

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Your PowerShell syntax looks mostly correct.

Here are a few adjustments and confirm us:

Exporting Inactive Mailboxes to CSV

Your command to export inactive mailboxes is correct:

Get-Mailbox -InactiveMailboxOnly -ResultSize Unlimited | Select-Object DisplayName, PrimarySMTPAddress, WhenSoftDeleted | Export-Csv C:\inactivemailboxes.csv -NoTypeInformation

Removing Email Addresses from the Retention Policy Your command to remove email addresses from the retention policy is also correct, but ensure your CSV file is formatted properly. Here’s the adjusted command:

Import-Csv C:\mailboxes.csv | ForEach-Object { 
    Set-Mailbox -Identity $_.users -ExcludeFromOrgHolds u98k89mn-9876-ht68-mjki-kj78oophgy768
}

Make sure your CSV file (C:\mailboxes.csv) has a header named users:

users
******@contoso.com
******@contoso.com

I hope the above steps will resolve the issue, please do let us know if issue persists. Thank you