Export pst issue Exchange 2019

Question

We have exchange 2019 and want to export pst of ex employees. These issues are encountered when exporting a .pst file.

• User mailbox size in Exchange is 2 - 3 GB but after exporting .pst file it shows 15 - 20 GB
• Some mailboxes while starting the export pst file, the status shows in progress but after 2 to 3 days nothing happens.

Before that everything was working fine even did not change anything on the server side.

Answer 1

Regarding the current issue, PST file size is more than Recoverable Items that might cause mailbox size issue. When you export the mailbox to .pst, all items in the mailbox, including Recoverable Items, will be exported to the .pst file. But when you check mailbox size in EMC, you check the size of the mailbox without Recoverable Items, so this is a size difference. In Recoverable Items, you can find all items deleted by the user which can be restored and calendar versioning its dumpster. For more reference, please see:
Export mailbox to pst larger than mailbox size

http://exchangeblog.pl/en/2012/11/export-mailbox-to-pst-larger-than-mailbox-size/

You can use the following cmdlet to check the percentage completed when Importing PST files to Exchange Server.

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics | ft -AutoSize   
 

For more details, you see: Get-MailboxExportRequest and New-MailboxExportRequest Powershell Command

Answer 2

To get the update status of the export pst file I found this EMS cmdlet Get-MailboxExportRequest -status failed. Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -IncludeReport | Format-List > \ex01\pstfiles\report.txt which has detailed the root cause of the error and hopefully resolves the issue.

Answer 3

Hi @Innocent Heartvoice ,

mailbox export to a pst file

Do you mean to export emails through Outlook client ? Can I know which version of Outlook client you use? Have you received any errors when did you export it?

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used EMS New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox AylaKol -FilePath "\SERVER01\PSTFileShare\xxxxxx.pst" and encountered problems

Please have a check the following points before you export emails using this command:

1. Go to the “EAC – permissions ”, check if the administrator has the Mailbox Import Export role .
   
2. Check the shared folder where you want to export your PST files are shared with above administrator and Exchange Trusted Sub System.
3. These two users must have full permissions on the folder and on the share .
   
4. You could use the Get Mailbox Export Request cmdlet to see if the export progress was successful.
   

In addition , I would suggest you also could refer to the following link to export specify the user mailbox use eDiscovery search.

Create an In-Place eDiscovery search in Exchange Server | Microsoft Learn
Exchange Server: Export eDiscovery search results to a PST file | Microsoft Learn

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