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A disconnected mailbox in Exchange Server denotes a mailbox that has lost connection with its Active Directory user account. If the user has committed Disable-Mailbox or Remove-Mailbox cmdlets in Exchange Management Shell, then the mailbox shows such state. There can be two scenarios for a disconnected state:
So, we have learned that a disconnected mailbox can be soft-deleted or disabled. A user can get to know if the mailbox still exists in the mailbox database by running this cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.
Note: Provide the mailbox display name in the place of the bold text in the above cmdlet.
This output shows Display Name, Database and Disconnect Reason (either Disabled or Soft-deleted).
Now, to reconnect a disconnected mailbox in Exchange Server, Microsoft has provided two manual ways – using Exchange Admin Center or by executing cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell. We are going to understand both the processes one by one in detail.
It is the easiest process of the two and does not require any technical skills for execution. Perform the following steps sequentially for reconnecting a disconnected Exchange Serve mailbox.
Hence, reconnecting a disconnected mailbox is successfully performed through the Exchange Admin Center interface.
This method is a little complex, and you need to be technically good.
Open the Exchange Management Shell. Wait till it connects to the Exchange Server. Now, run this command to reconnect the disconnected mailbox in Exchange Server
Note: Replace the bold letters with the disconnected mailbox display name (for <display name>) and mailbox database name for <mailbox database name>.
See, the example screenshot.
The mailbox will be available at its original location within connected to the user account. Also, users can connect this mailbox to other mailbox accounts, such as shared mailbox, linked mailbox, etc.
To connect the disconnected mailbox to the shared mailbox, run this command:
So, we have learned that mailboxes can be reconnected if disabled or soft-deleted (within the retention period), through the above-explained manual techniques. But these solutions will not work if the EDB file is corrupted. It means a disconnected mailbox cannot be reconnected if the Exchange database file is damaged or corrupted. It is hard to get the satisfactory results if you run Eseutil for EDB Repair. If you are facing this problem, then taking help from an advanced EDB recovery tool is good for the recovery of that disconnected and other mailboxes.
Kernel for Exchange Server recovery is a professional third-party software to recover corrupt EDB mailboxes including the deleted mailboxes flawlessly. It integrates powerful algorithms for fixing corruption. It provides many filters and saving options to recover Exchange mailboxes as per your needs.
After using the presented manual methods in the article, you can connect a disconnected mailbox with Exchange Server again. But a corruption in the database will not give the fruitful results. So, you should repair the database using our software and recover the mailbox. The software provides a robust solution for the recovery of mailboxes after EDB file corruption.