How to Merge Mailboxes

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Shell to merge the contents of one mailbox into another mailbox.

Note

You cannot use the Exchange Management Console to merge mailboxes.

A scenario in which you might want to merge mailboxes is in the case of moving mailboxes from one forest to another without interrupting the user's access to the mailbox. When you move a mailbox from one forest to another, unless you are in a resource forest scenario, you must move both the mailbox and the user account. You must perform these two steps separately. To move the mailbox, you must use the Move-Mailbox cmdlet. To move the Active Directory directory service user account, you must use the Active Directory Migration Tool version 3.0 (ADMT v3) or a similar tool.

If you are moving a large number of mailboxes across forests, users could be without access to their mailboxes for a significant amount of time. However, you can reduce the amount of time that users cannot access their mailboxes. First, run Move-Mailbox to move the mailbox from the source forest to the target forest, but do not delete the source mailbox or source user account. At this point, the user still has access to that source mailbox. Next, move the user account with ADMT v3, and then disable access to the source mailbox. Now the user cannot access the source mailbox, but can access the target mailbox. Finally, run Move-Mailbox again using the AllowMerge parameter to move e-mail messages contained in the source mailbox that were sent or received during the transition and were not moved to the target mailbox during the initial move.

For more information about merging mailbox data in a recovery scenario, see the following topics:

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated the following:

  • Exchange Server Administrator role and local Administrators group for both the source server and the target server

  • Exchange Recipient Administrator role for both the source organization and the target organization

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Procedure

To use the Exchange Management Shell to merge mailboxes

  • Run the following command:

    Move-Mailbox -Identity john -TargetDatabase "Mailbox Database" -AllowMerge $true

    Note

    If you use the AllowMerge parameter, you cannot use the SourceMailboxCleanupOptions parameter. If you want to delete the source mailbox after you merge mailboxes, you must do this manually after you run the Move-Mailbox command.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see the Move-Mailbox reference topic.

For More Information

For more information about the ADMT v3, see Active Directory Migration Tool v3.0.