Exchange UnifiedContent folder fills up the drive

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Exchange Server 2019, Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2013

Symptoms

You receive low disk space alerts for the drive on which Microsoft Exchange Server is installed, and files and apps on that drive take longer to open. When you check the size of the %ExchangeInstallPath%\TransportRoles\data\Temp\UnifiedContent folder, you find that it uses up most of the drive space.

Cause

Exchange Server creates and manages temporary files in the UnifiedContent folder to assist antimalware scanning. Although the Microsoft Exchange Health Manager service runs a scheduled cleanup task on that folder, either of the following scenarios can cause the cleanup to fail:

  • You didn't install Exchange Server in the default location (C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15). Therefore, the UnifiedContent folder doesn't exist at its default location (C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\TransportRoles\data\Temp\UnifiedContent).

  • You changed the default location of the UnifiedContent folder by directly editing TemporaryStoragePath in the %ExchangeInstallPath%\Bin\EdgeTransport.exe.config configuration file or by running Move-TransportDatabase.ps1.

Cleanup fails if Exchange Health Manager can't locate the UnifiedContent folder. The UnifiedContent folder location is specified by CleanupFolderResponderFolderPaths in the %ExchangeInstallPath%\Bin\Monitoring\Config\Antimalware.xml settings file. Regardless of the actual Exchange Server installation path, CleanupFolderResponderFolderPaths contains the default UnifiedContent folder installation path (C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\TransportRoles\data\Temp\UnifiedContent).

Resolution

Use either of the following resolutions to update the UnifiedContent folder path in Antimalware.xml.

Important

If an Exchange Server cumulative update overwrites your changes to Antimalware.xml, rerun your selected resolution after the update finishes.

Resolution 1

On each server that runs Exchange Server in your organization, follow these steps to point Exchange Health Manager to the UnifiedContent folder:

Note

If you back up the Antimalware.xml settings file, store the backup file in a different folder.

  1. Get the UnifiedContent folder path. To do this, open the %ExchangeInstallPath%\TransportRoles\data\Temp\UnifiedContent folder in File Explorer, and then copy the expanded folder path.

  2. Open the %ExchangeInstallPath%\Bin\Monitoring\Config\Antimalware.xml settings file.

  3. In Antimalware.xml, replace the path, C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\TransportRoles\data\Temp\UnifiedContent in CleanupFolderResponderFolderPaths, with the expanded folder path that you obtained in step 1.

    For example, if the existing CleanupFolderResponderFolderPaths value is D:\ExchangeTemp\TransportCts\UnifiedContent;C:\Windows\Temp\UnifiedContent;C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\TransportRoles\data\Temp\UnifiedContent, change that value to D:\ExchangeTemp\TransportCts\UnifiedContent;C:\Windows\Temp\UnifiedContent;<actual UnifiedContent folder path>.

  4. Save your changes to Antimalware.xml, and then restart the Exchange Health Manager service. The service name is MSExchangeHM.

Exchange Health Manager will clean the UnifiedContent folder during the next maintenance cycle. By default, maintenance cycles run every four hours.

Resolution 2

On a server that runs Exchange Server in your organization, run the UnifiedContentCorrector PowerShell script as an administrator. The script tries to connect to each Exchange-based server that's listed in the local Active Directory. After a successful connection is made, the script updates the UnifiedContent folder path in Antimalware.xml. You might have to run the script on more than one server to make sure that all servers are updated.