Big discrepancey between mailbox sixe on server vs local

Question

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

Answer 1

You could always just delete from the Outlook side:

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

Answer 2

Check the mailbox folder stats on the server:

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics -Identity contoso\chris

What shows and how much?

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

What does OWA show for storage?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/mailbox-usage-status-bar-in-owa-displays-incorrect-mailbox-usage-9c8574a7-e86f-e3e6-dd5d-1c819df21449

Answer 3

lol!

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

Answer 4

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.

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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Answer 5

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.