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Hello,
We have a soft-deleted MailUser in Exchange Online that cannot be permanently removed. The object was originally synced from an on-prem Exchange Server 2019 environment and was on Litigation Hold.
Get-MailUser -SoftDeletedMailUser | FL Name,InPlaceHolds,LitigationHoldEnabled
LitigationHoldEnabled: False
InPlaceHolds: Contains legacy -mbx<GUID> values from on-premises Litigation Hold
There are no cloud retention policies in the tenant:
Get-RetentionCompliancePolicy | Select Name,ExchangeLocation,Guid
Command returns blank
Attempts to remove the object fail:
Remove-MailUser -Identity <SoftDeletedMailUser> -Permanent
Error: “Unable to permanently delete mail enabled user. The mail enabled user has litigation hold or In-Place hold applied on it.”
Attempts to restore the object as a mailbox in Exchange Online also fail:
Enable-Mailbox -Identity <SoftDeletedMailUser>
Error: Object not found
The InPlaceHolds are legacy metadata from the on-prem Litigation Hold
Exchange Online does not allow deletion of soft-deleted mail-enabled users with these orphaned holds
There are no cloud retention policies, so normal bypass methods don’t apply
The object cannot be restored as a mailbox because it never existed in Exchange Online as a full mailbox
Has anyone encountered a similar scenario with orphaned soft-deleted MailUsers with legacy on-prem holds?
What is the supported method to permanently remove these objects from Exchange Online?
Is contacting Microsoft Support for backend deletion the only solution?
Thank you for any guidance or suggestions.
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Simply remove it from Entra side, either via the admin portal or via Remove-MgUser.
Of course, make sure any resources associated with said account are properly backed up/accounted for first.
There is nothing on Entra side for this user
Ah, I got "orphaned" wrong, apologies.
Try the following then:
Set-MailUser ******@domain.com -RemoveLitigationHoldEnabled
This switch only works when there is no matching object in M365/Entra, so it will hopefully do the trick. There are similar parameters for other hold types as well, if needed.
Get-MailUser -SoftDeletedMailUser 3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0 | Set-MailUser -RemoveLitigationHoldEnabled
WARNING: The command completed successfully but no settings of 'Soft Deleted Objects\3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0' have been modified.
Remove-MailUser -Identity 3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0 -Permanent
Remove-MailUser: ||Unable to permanently delete mail enabled user. The mail enabled user has litigation hold or In-Place hold applied on it. Please remove the hold before trying
to delete.
Remove-MailUser -Identity 3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0 -Permanent
Remove-MailUser: ||Unable to permanently delete mail enabled user. The mail enabled user has litigation hold or In-Place hold applied on it. Please remove the hold before trying
to delete.
The softdeleted user is not under any holds, just metadata on the softdeleted object can can't be removed by me as it seems, MS case has been open for over 10 day, with zero progress
Get-MailUser -SoftDeletedMailUser 3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0 | FL Name,InPlaceHolds,LitigationHoldEnabled
Name : 3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0
InPlaceHolds : {-mbx6cebe1ece7ca4722b79bd2c8ff0fc197, -mbx3fa20b0b4abc4ac5bad18c25afcecebd, 3fa20b0b4abc4ac5bad18c25afcecebd, 6cebe1ece7ca4722b79bd2c8ff0fc197}
LitigationHoldEnabled : False
If it's a soft-deleted one, you can use -ExcludeFromAllHolds:
Set-MailUser Guest_0dcfb965285249a6a613c58b7008334a -ExcludeFromAllHolds
WARNING: Excluding 1 organization-level policies from mail user Soft Deleted Objects\Guest_0dcfb965285249a6a613c58b7008334a: mbx6590cabc176344cba96d8fae0188764d:2
WARNING: Excluding 1 user-level policies from mail user Soft Deleted Objects\Guest_0dcfb965285249a6a613c58b7008334a: 6590cabc-1763-44cb-a96d-8fae0188764d
WARNING: Successfully excluded mail user Soft Deleted Objects\Guest_0dcfb965285249a6a613c58b7008334a from 2 holds. Added 1 exemption entries.
nope
Set-MailUser 3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0 -ExcludeFromAllHolds
WARNING: Excluding 2 user-level policies from mail user Soft Deleted Objects\3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0: 3fa20b0b4abc4ac5bad18c25afcecebd, 6cebe1ece7ca4722b79bd2c8ff0fc197
WARNING: Successfully excluded mail user Soft Deleted Objects\3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0 from 2 holds. Added 2 exemption entries.
WARNING: The command completed successfully but no settings of 'Soft Deleted Objects\3c595d10-b1f9-4db3-87c6-8b3420fca8b0' have been modified.
In your scenario with the orphaned soft-deleted MailUser that has legacy on-premises Litigation Hold metadata, it appears that Exchange Online does not allow the deletion of such users due to the existing holds, even if they are not actively enabled. Since the object cannot be restored as a mailbox and normal deletion methods are failing, the situation is indeed complex.
The recommended approach in this case would be to contact Microsoft Support for assistance. They have the capability to perform backend operations that may not be available through standard administrative commands, especially when dealing with legacy metadata and holds from on-premises environments.
It's important to provide Microsoft Support with all relevant details, including the errors you are encountering and the current state of the MailUser, to expedite the resolution process.
References: