Summary: While using the Export-Mailbox command in Exchange Server to export the mailboxes to PST format, you may encounter the error, “Error occurred in the step: Approving Object.” In this article, you will learn the reasons that lead to the error message and the solution to fix it. You can also use an EDB to PST Converter tool, such as Stellar Converter for EDB, to avoid the error and directly export all mailboxes from the Exchange database (.edb) file to Office 365.
Exporting mailboxes or public folders to PST file is something that is in the Exchange Admin daily work and something which is frequently requested. It could be either for archiving purposes, a leaver request from HR, a migration/upgrade to a newer Exchange Server version and migration to Office 365 or another cloud platform
If you are still running an old Exchange Server like 2007 it would be a good time and highly recommended to upgrade or migrate to cloud at the earliest possible. Having such an old version of Exchange Server make you open for compatibility issues, security implications and of course no support from Microsoft. Depending on the number of mailboxes or the business requirements, the best option would be to have a new Exchange Server like 2016 or 2019; or migrate to Office 365. You will not be able to have a co-existence with the newer version of Exchange Server except if you install Exchange 2010, decommission Exchange 2007, install Exchange 2013, install Exchange 2016 or 2019 and then decommission the Exchange 2016 but it would take a lot of time and administrative effort which does equal to money. If one would be migrating to Office 365 you will not be able to setup a hybrid setup with Exchange 2007, so the best option is the cut off and export/ import all mailboxes.
Since Exchange 2007 does not support the New-MailboxExportRequest like Exchange 2010 upwards, you need to have the latest updates and service packs installed, a machine running a 32 bit version of Windows and Office along with the Exchange Management Tools and use the Export-Mailbox PowerShell cmdlet as below.
Export-Mailbox john.smith ?PSTFolderPath E:\Exports\
Once you type the above you will be asked to confirm the operation but you will be presented with the following error:“Export-Mailbox: Error was found for john.smith (john.smith@contoso.com) because: Error occurred in the step: Approving object. An unknown error has occurred., error code: 2137221241”
Before trying anything out, you might need to add verbose logging to the command by adding ?verbose to the cmdlet maybe it can give more information before going through the suggested solutions below to fix the problem
Solution 1
There are different approaches to tackle this but firstly let?s try with the basics. Check that the user you are using has full access to the location where you are exporting the mailboxes. Another thing to check is the permissions of the user which must have local administrator where you are exporting the machines, and full access on the mailbox by the using the following command.
Get-Mailbox | Add-MailboxPermission ?User Exporter ?AccessRight FullAccess
Solution 2
Checking if the Outlook 2010 has the updates KB2687623, KB 2598374 and KB2597090 installed. If you have any of the mentioned updates installed you would need to uninstall them. Now, if you get your updates via a WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) server installed, you would need to decline and marked them to not install. I would give the machine a restart and try again, if this fails, then I would go with making sure that any other updates or service packs are installed on the machine
Solution 3
There could be an issue with your Outlook installation. You can uninstall and re-install the application but one thing one could do is to run FixMapi.exe to fix the mapi32.dll file. Basically FixMapi will restore the mapi32.dll with a fresh copy with the MAPI stub library mapistub.dll. Now you need to make sure that the mapi32.dll is not set as read only as it will not fix the problem just in case.
If you execute the FixMapi and you get a zero result, it means that something was wrong. Please check the permissions on the mapi32.dll and of course make sure that Outlook is closed.
It is always advisable to take a backup copy of the current mapi32.dll file before running FixMapi.exe. This should fix the issue and after re-running the Mailbox-Export command it should work. To be on the safe side you might need to restart the machine before executing the command.
Conclusion
If any of the solutions has worked there isn?t much help using the native tools and you won?t expect Microsoft to assist on an out of support product. The only and efficient solution would be to use a third party EDB to PST Converter tool such as Stellar Converter for EDB to export from any version of EDB being online and offline in two clicks.
With Stellar you won?t need to have another machine running the Exchange Management Tools, 32bit Office and having to tackle such issues. All you need to do is attach the EDB file to the application, do a quick scan and in a matter of minutes you will be able to export the mailboxes to PST and other formats with a variety of filters and of course you can granularly export one or multiple mailboxes. If you are migrating, the application doesn?t stop there are you will have the ability to export from the EDB file and import them directly to a live Exchange Server or Office 365 with minimal intervention. You can migrate drop 80% of your migration effort with this application. You can explore the mailboxes via an Outlook like GUI which is easy to use and no complicated menus. Stellar Converter for EDB is an ideal companion tool for your Exchange infrastructure as it supports all versions of Exchange Server.
