How to recover mailboxes in Exchange Server 2019?

Read time 6 minutes

Even in the most recent Exchange Server iterations, such as Exchange 2019, achieving complete security remains a challenge. Data loss incidents can occur due to human errors like accidental deletions, EDB corruption and access issues within the Exchange Server environment. Fortunately, Exchange 2019 includes safeguards to mitigate these risks. When a mailbox is inadvertently deleted, it can still be recovered from the Exchange 2019 database as long as it’s retained for a certain duration. This retention period is governed by the Exchange retention policy, which defaults to 30 days but can be adjusted to meet specific requirements. After this designated timeframe elapses, the deleted mailbox will be permanently purged from the system.

How to recover a mailbox from Exchange 2019 after its deletion?

You can effortlessly restore a mailbox in Exchange 2019 by utilizing the Connect a mailbox feature within the Exchange Admin Center. This versatile option allows you to establish a connection for the previously deleted mailbox with either an existing user account (unlinked to any other mailbox) or a new user account. To complete this process, follow these steps:

1. Go to Recipients > Mailboxes in EAC and click More…; now, click Connect a mailbox.
2. When the list of the disconnected mailboxes is displayed, click the mailbox that you want to restore and click Connect.
3. Click Yes to confirm the action.
4. When the list of user accounts is displayed, just select the one that you want and click OK.

The deleted mailbox gets connected to the user account.

You can connect the disconnected mailboxes using the Management Shell cmdlet also. To do that, you can use these cmdlets:

Note: You can use the Get-User cmdlet to find the mailbox you want to connect.

However, these methods do not guarantee success if the Exchange database is corrupt or inaccessible. In that case, you need professional Exchange EDB recovery tools. Kernel for Exchange Server efficiently recovers any kind of inaccessible Exchange data from corrupted Exchange databases and make it available for preview. Here, we have given the necessary steps for the recovery of lost Exchange 2019 mailboxes via the software.

To ensure a seamless mailbox recovery process, it is recommended to dismount the Exchange database initially. This step makes the offline EDB file accessible for recovery purposes. If you haven’t already purchased the software, visit the software’s official webpage and download the trial version. Once the download is complete, proceed to install the tool on your system. After successful installation, launch the software and proceed with the following steps for mailbox recovery.

1. On the start screen, either click Add Source or Offline EDB to add Exchange 2019 EDB file. In the new window, the Offline EDB file is selected by default, click Next to continue.
   
2. Now, browse and add the offline EDB file as source. If you don’t know the EDB file location, you can use the Search option to search for the EDB files in the specified drive; click Next.
   
3. Choose a suitable scanning mode and click Next.
   
4. All the EDB mailboxes, whether deleted, lost or disconnected, are available for preview. You can select any mailbox folder and preview its content. Now, add destination by clicking either Add Destination or PST File option as displayed here.
   
5. You have different options for conversion to PST – you can either save data to a new PST file or to an existing one. Choose your option (here Create New PST File) and click Next.
   
6. You need to provide a path location to save the PST file. This PST file can also be protected with a password if needed. Click Next.
   
7. After adding both the source and destination, select any source folder and right-click on it. You can choose from the listed options like Copy Folder, Extract Attachments, Export Message(s), etc.
   
   Note: You can also export all the mailboxes to pst directly by selecting Export Mailboxes to PST after placing the cursor at the root folder.
8. After you have selected Copy Folder option from the source pane, go to the destination pane and right-click on any folder. Now select Paste Folder option.
   
9. A list of options and filters will be available for selective saving. Make your choices and click OK. The saving process will start and complete quickly, and you can see the pasted content in the destination pane.

Thus, Exchange mailbox recovery has been completed.

Ending Words

Accidental mailbox deletions pose a significant threat to data integrity across various versions of Exchange Server, including the latest Exchange 2019 release. Fortunately, the process of recovering deleted mailboxes is straightforward, thanks to Exchange’s practice of retaining them for a certain period before permanent removal. In this context, we have outlined effective recovery methods that leverage both the Exchange Admin Center and Exchange Management Shell. These techniques are not only highly reliable but also recommended for addressing mailbox recovery needs in any situation involving data loss within the Exchange environment.