Summary: The "Microsoft Exchange Transport Service won't start" error usually occurs after installing cumulative updates. In this post, we’ve mentioned the solutions to fix this error. You’ll also find about an Exchange repair tool that can help repair corrupt database file and recover all its data.
Exchange Server has several services that are required to run and perform correctly. One important service is the Microsoft Exchange Transport service. When this service is stopped for a reason or another, no one will be able to receive or send emails. In some cases, the service will not start automatically after a restart for maintenance or for updates reasons. In these cases, if you start the service manually from the Services control panel, it will start and the flow of emails will continue. Sometimes, it is suggested to set the Exchange Server services to automatic and start delayed. This means that the services will not start immediately when the server is rebooted. But these will be started with a delay to let the Operating System load properly before starting the Exchange Server services.
On some occasions, you encounter an error whenever you attempt to start the service. In the Event Viewer and Application section, you will notice the error entry with the code 7010.
<Component Name="Microsoft.Exchange.Transport.PoisonMessage" Elapsed="00:00:14.4387799" IsRunning="true" > & <Component Name="AD Configuration Readers" Elapsed="00:00:14.4388831" IsRunning="true">
After this, you would also notice the error with the event ID 14001, stating that the process terminated as it isn’t responding. After some time, you will also notice the error with the event ID 7004 from the Exchange Transport Service (MSExchangeTransport), stating the below message:
The activation of all modules took longer than expected to complete. Total Load Time: 00:24:58.9219603 Total Start <Component Name="AD Configuration Readers" Elapsed="00:24:58.1901082"> <Component Name="Microsoft.Exchange.Transport.PoisonMessage" Elapsed="00:24:58.1891092" />
Reasons for the “Microsoft Exchange Transport Service won’t start” Error
This error may occur after installing a new Cumulative Update (CU) for Exchange Server. It is always recommended that you take a backup and ad-hoc backup before installing important updates. These updates make several changes to the infrastructure of your Exchange Server and to the Active Directory Schema. Any issue or complication can make your Exchange Server unusable with services not starting and data integrity can be impacted as it may corrupt your Exchange Server mailbox database or transaction logs.
Solutions to Fix the Error “Microsoft Exchange Transport Service won’t start”
You can use the Exchange Server native tool – EseUtil to try to repair the mailbox databases. This tool offers two options – Soft Recovery and Hard Recovery. The soft recovery helps to fix minimal damage to the database or logs. The hard recovery needs to be only used as a last resort. Let’s go through the two options.
The soft recovery can be executed with the below command:
Eseutil /r e00 /l "<location of log files>" /d "<location of database>"
When executed, depending on the size of the database, it will take some time. After that, you can try to mount Exchange database.
If this fails, apart from the hard recovery, you can restore from backup. However, these options will induce data loss.
The hard recovery can be executed by using the below command:
Eseutil /p "<location of database edb file>"
When you execute the command, a prompt immediately appears require you to accept the data loss as hard recovery basically purges any information which is deemed corrupted. EseUtil can be used but it cannot guarantee successful results as after this, you could end up with an unusable database.
Conclusion
If you’ve encountered the “Microsoft Exchange Transport Service won’t start” error, you can apply the solutions mentioned in this blog post. If database is not mounting, you can use an easy and fast alternative – Stellar Repair for Exchange. The application can open any version of Exchange Server database without having an Exchange Server running. You can browse through multiple EDB files and export the mailboxes to PST and other formats. You can also export directly to a new Exchange Server database or Office 365 tenant with multiple granular options.
Ravi Singh is a Senior Writer at Stellar®. He is an expert Tech Explainer, IoT enthusiast, and a passionate nerd with over 6 years of experience in technical writing. He writes about Data Recovery, File Repair, Email Migration, Linux, Windows, Mac, and DIY Tech. Ravi spends most of his weekends working with IoT devices and playing games on the Xbox. He is also a solo traveler who loves hiking and exploring new trails.
