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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. But performing this export has traditionally been a tedious task involving quite a lot of time and utmost care. In this post, we have mentioned the step-by-step procedure to export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST by using the Exchange Management Shell (PowerShell Commands) and Exchange Admin Center.
In Exchange versions before 2010, administrators had to rely on third-party utilities like ExMerge to import/export EDB to PST. However, with release of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 & onwards, new PowerShell cmdlets such as New-MailboxImportRequest and New-MailboxExportRequest were introduced to perform various import/export procedures. Further enhancements were made to these cmdlets over the years. In Exchange 2013, they have been extended and their usability has vastly improved.
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This article covers the steps to export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST by using the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and the Exchange Admin Center (EAC)..
Steps to Export Exchange 2013 Mailbox to PST by using EMS (PowerShell Commands)
To export mailbox to PST, following conditions must be met.
Step 1: Assign Permission Rights
You must assign 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 rights 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 name of the account to which the rights are given.
Alternatively, you may also assign these rights to the AD group and make things more convenient. In this way, whenever the rights are to be 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: Export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST
To export mailbox to PST in Exchange 2013, you can use New-MailboxExportRequest PowerShell Command cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell.
New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox testdummy –FilePath\\exsrv2013\d$\pst\TestDummy.pst
The above PowerShell Command exports the entire mailbox to the mentioned shared folder path as TestDummy.pst file.
Export Particular Mailbox Folder to PST
You may also export a particular folder to the PST. To do so, change this PowerShell Command as follows,
New-MailboxExportRequest –Mailbox testdummy –FilePath\\exsrv2013\d$\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 folders 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 dates, 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 PST export request from the EMS, you can check the status by executing following command,
Get-MailboxExportRequest
Steps to Export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST by Using EAC
You may use the Exchange Admin Center to request PST export for 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,
Final Words
So that is the detailed process to export Exchange 2013 mailboxes to PST format by using the PowerShell Command 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 as a spell-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.
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 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 both online and offline EDBs.
Problem solver and Data recovery specialist. Usually share informative articles on data recovery, database corruption and ways to recover lost data.
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: https://www.stellarinfo.com/support/kb/index.php/article/how-to-convert-online-edb-to-pst-in-msexchange-2007-10
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.