When you delete a mailbox or an Active Directory account, the soft-deleted or disconnected mailbox won't show up in the list of disconnected mailboxes immediately. The mailbox status is updated as part of a mailbox store maintenance task.
When you query a mailbox database for disconnected mailboxes you will find a mailbox having the DisconnectReason and DisconnectDate attribute empty.
# Query the mailbox using the original user display name Get-MailboxDatabase | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.DisplayName -eq "LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME" } | fl DisconnectReason,DisconnectDate,MailboxGuid,Database # Use wildcards if the correct display name is unknown Get-MailboxDatabase | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.DisplayName -like "*LASTNAME*" } | fl DisconnectReason,DisconnectDate,MailboxGuid,Database DisconnectReason :DisconnectDate :MailboxGuid : a04a8aab-c360-406b-a194-8c290d56668bDatabase : MBXDB34
You can find disonnected mailboxes by
- DisplayName
- MailboxGuid
- LegacyExchangeDN
The following PowerShell cmdlet updates the mailbox state of a single mailbox using the MailboxGuid as an identifier.
Update-StoreMailboxState -Database MBXDB34 -Identity a04a8aab-c360-406b-a194-8c290d56668b
After updating the mailbox state the DisconnectReason and DisconnectDate attributes are properly set.
Get-MailboxDatabase | Get-MailboxStatistics | Where { $_.DisplayName -eq "LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME" } | fl DisconnectReason,DisconnectDate,MailboxGuid,Database DisconnectReason : DisabledDisconnectDate : 01.01.2017 15:02:59MailboxGuid : a04a8aab-c360-406b-a194-8c290d56668bDatabase : MBXDB34
The disconnected mailbox is now visible in Exchange Administrative Center (EAC) and can be reconnected using EAC or Exchange Management Shell.
By default a disconnected mailbox is supposed to be connected it's original account having a matching LegacyExchangeDN attribute. Connecting the mailbox to a different Active Directory account requires the use of the AllowLegacyDNMismatch parameter.
# Connect a mailbox to the original AD account having a matching LegacyExchangeDNConnect-Mailbox -Database MBXDB34 -Identity "Doe, John"# Connect a mailbox to a different AD account Connect-Mailbox -Database MBXDB34 -Identity "Doe, John" -User "Jane Doe" -AllowLegacyDNMismatch
Examples for room and shared mailboxes are described in the Connect-Mailbox documentation.
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