How to Export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST
Summary: Exporting mailboxes from Exchange 2013 to PST format requires preparation, such as assigning roles, creating UNC path, etc. In this article, you will learn steps to export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST by using the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or PowerShell cmdlets in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).
Contents
Exchange administrators often need to export mailboxes from Exchange database (EDB) files to PST format. The most common reason for doing so is to extract data from Offline EDB files and access it with MS Outlook or migrate to another server or Office 365.
However, exporting Exchange mailboxes to PST is a tedious task involving a lot of time and utmost care.
Earlier administrators had to rely on third-party utilities like ExMerge to import/export EDB to PST. However, with Exchange Server 2010 SP1, new PowerShell cmdlets, such as New-MailboxExportRequest, were introduced, allowing administrators to export mailboxes from the online Exchange database to PST format quickly.
Further, with Exchange 2013, Microsoft introduced Exchange Admin Center (EAC), a GUI-based web interface for administrators use to manage Exchange Servers.
This article covers the steps to export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST using the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) web interface.
Steps to Export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST via PowerShell Cmdlet
To export mailbox to PST, the following conditions must be met.
- The account with which the export will be performed should have permission to Mailbox Import/Export request.
- The user should have access to the network location to save the PST file. The user must know the complete UNC path. For example, \\PCName111\C$\PST\tstmail.pst.
- Exchange 2013 mailbox, to be exported, must exist in the Exchange database (EDB).
Step 1: Assign Permission Rights
You must assign the required rights to the user account, which you will use to perform the Exchange 2013 mailbox export to PST format. Contrary to perception, even the admin account doesn’t have the right to perform these operations by default. Thus, type the following PowerShell command in PowerShell to assign requisite rights to the user account.
New-ManagementRoleAssignment –Role “Mailbox Import Export” –User Exporter
Here ‘User Exporter‘ is the account name to which the rights are given.
Alternatively, you may assign these rights to the AD group and make things more convenient. This way, whenever the rights are given to a user account, that account only needs to be added to this group. If you wish to do the same, enter the following command in the PowerShell window
New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role “Mailbox Import Export” -SecurityGroup ExchangeAdmGroup
Here ‘ExchangeAdmGroup’ is the name of the AD group.
You can also perform this process from the Exchange Admin Center (EAC). After giving the rights, you’ll need to restart the EAC.
Step 2: Create a UNC Folder Path to Save Exported PST Files
To save the exported mailboxes to PST files, you must create a UNC file path or shared folder location. The steps are as follows:
- Create a folder at any location on your Exchange Server.
- Right-click on the newly created folder and select Give access to> Specific People…
- Select Everyone (not recommended) or your username (recommended) from the dropdown and click Add.
- Select Read/Write permission for the folder access and click Share.
- Note down the shared network path. In this case, it’s \\exsrv2013\d$\pst.
This is the shared folder path location we will use to export and save the exported mailboxes as PST files.
Step 3: Export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST
To export the mailbox to PST in Exchange 2013, you can use the New-MailboxExportRequest PowerShell Command cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell (EMS).
New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox testdummy –FilePath\\exsrv2013\d$\pst\TestDummy.pst
The above PowerShell Command exports the entire mailbox to the mentioned shared folder path as a TestDummy.pst file.
Export Particular Mailbox Folder to PST
You may also export a particular folder to the PST. To do so, change this PowerShell Command as follows,
New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox testdummy –FilePath\\exsrv2013\d$\pst\TestDummy.pst -IncludeFolders “#Inbox#”
The command exports the Inbox folder in the Exchange 2013 mailbox to PST.
Exclude a Folder from PST Export
You can also exclude a folder from the PST export. For that, you need to change the command as follows:
New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox testdummy –FilePath\\exsrv2013\d$\pst\TestDummy.pst -ExcludeFolders “#DeletedItems#”
The above command exports all folders and mail items from the Exchange 2013 mailbox to PST, except the ‘DeletedItems’ folder.
Exclude and Include Multiple Folders
If you would like to include or exclude multiple folders, you can use the comma between the folder names in the command.
“#DeletedItems#”, “#Spam#”
Filter Mailbox Content for PST Export
If you would like to export, for example, mails received last year or between a certain date, you can use the –ContentFilter parameter.
-Content Filter {(Received –gt ‘01/01/2017)}
-Content Filter {(Received –lt ‘01/01/2017) –and (Received –gt ‘01/01/2016)}
You can further customize the command as per your need. For example, to export all emails received after 1st January 2017 with the keywords “London” and “MSProject”, you can execute the following commands,
New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox mailtst –FilePath \HQFS01\ExportPST\mailtst.pst –ContentFilter {(body –like “MSProject”) –and {body –like “London”) –and (Received –lt “01/01/2017)}
After creating a PST export request from the EMS, you can check the status by executing the following command,
Get-MailboxExportRequest
Steps to Export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST via Exchange Admin Center
You may use the Exchange Admin Center to request PST export for the selected mailbox in Exchange 2013. It’s GUI based and easy to execute. However, you can’t filter content or include/exclude folders from the PST export request.
Follow the given steps,
- Assign the Import/Export role, create a UNC path as discussed earlier.
- Open and log in to EAC as administrator.
- Then navigate to recipients > mailboxes and click on the More options.
- Select Export to a PST file option from the dropdown.
- In Export to a .pst file wizard, browse and choose the mailbox you want to export to PST and select the appropriate options to export only the contents of this mailbox or mailbox’s archive.
- Click Next and enter the UNC path (shared folder path on the network) with the file name of the .pst file. You can enter any name.
- Click Next and browse to select your user account. Exchange will mail you when mailbox export to PST is finished.
- Click ‘Finish’ to start PST export on Exchange 2013 mailbox server.
Final Words
So that is the detailed process to export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST format using the PowerShell Command in Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and Exchange Admin Center (EAC). In EMS, you need to execute PowerShell cmdlets that require some form of technical expertise to handle. If you make even a simple mistake such as a spelling error while executing commands, the results could be disastrous, including data loss. In such cases, you should rely on EAC. However, EAC limits export options. Also, when you don’t have access to the permissions required to export the mailboxes to PST, you cannot use these methods to export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST.
In such cases, you should use a trustworthy automated EDB to PST conversion tool, such as Stellar Converter for EDB. This tool converts all or selected items within the EDB to PST format accurately and in minimum time. It also shows a preview of the mail items after the EDB scan and lets you filter, choose and export selected mail items from the listed mailboxes. Further, it can export mailboxes to PST from online and offline EDBs. You can also import the converted mailboxes from offline EDB to Office 365 or another Exchange Server directly using the software at up to 4x faster speed with parallel processing.
I need a simple solution. Our company doesn’t want any risk with private Exchange mailbox folders.
Hi Anthony,
Try Stellar Mailbox Extractor for Exchange Server for exporting Exchange mailboxes to PST.
How PowerShell can execute this task?
Hi Rafaela,
PowerShell commands should run under the observation of Exchange Server experts. Any bad move can damage the integrity of Exchange Server database file.
We are planning to migrate the mailboxes from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013. Are there any precautions I have to take? I used MailboxExport command, but it always gets status request failed. I am not sure what the end game is, but I am getting crazy with this command. Please suggest any alternative solution.
You can export all the mailboxes to a pst then deleted the Exchange 2010 mailboxes and then recreated the mailboxes in 2013 and imported the pst file. I am not sure where the problem is because you don’t put full error message here. If you don’t want to use Powershell commands, you can use Stellar EDB to PST to export all the mailboxes to a pst file & then import the pst file to MS Outlook & connect to MS Exchange Server.
I migrate online EDB to PST with the help of this tool. A window displays with the User Name and Status (Connected/Disconnected. Mailboxes are shown disconnected. What is this mean? I am using Exchange Server 2010.
For this you need to grant Mailbox Rights to them. Please follow the steps as given in following KB article Read More
Can I restore a specific mailbox from recovery database to a pst file?
No, For this, First you have to restore the mailbox to a connected primary mailbox then use this command: New-MailboxExportRequest. You can also use Stellar EDB to PST converter to make this task hassle free.
These powershell cmdlets worked for me and I was able to export 11 mailboxes to PST in no time.
Tried executing the same powershell scripts given in your article but due to some technical issue, scripts didn’t work. Is there any guarantee that all of the data will be exported to PST using Stellar EDB to PST converter? I have read a lot of positive reviews about the software but still I’m not sure whether to go for it or not.
Hi Alexander,
Yes, Stellar EDB to PST will definitely export your desired EDB to PST file. You can check the credibility of the converter by trying its demo version and if you get your desired results in the preview pane of the software, you can then go for the full version as whatever mailbox items are displayed in the demo version, will be converted and saved into PST with the full version.
Let me know if you need any other assistance.
Thanks & Regards,
Eric Simson
Email Consultant,
Stellar Data Recovery
A couple of months back, I exported 31 mailboxes to PST using powershell cmdlets given in this article and the task was successful at that time but when I was trying to export some mailboxes to PST last week, I was getting some unexpected error and the process got terminated in between. So, upon going through this article again, I got to know about professional converter and gave it a shot. After trying its demo, I bought the full version and truly speaking, the software did the trick and I was able to export those mailboxes to PST without any hassle.
Last week, OST file of one of our employees became corrupt and Outlook stopped working. By following steps of this article, we successfully converted the corresponding EDB file to PST, which we imported back into his Outlook to make him start working again. Thanks for this useful post
No doubt, Export_mailbox cmdlet has made the job easy of Exchange admins but at the same time I would also like to mention in many cases I have noticed successful execution of cmdlets becomes complex. In such cases, I would agree with the author of this article that such complexities can be eliminated with third party tools.