How to Export Exchange 2013 Mailboxes to PST

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.

1. The account with which the export will be performed should have permission to Mailbox Import/Export request
2. User should have access to the network location to save PST file. User must know the complete UNC path. For example, \\PCName111\C$\PST\tstmail.pst
3. Exchange 2013 mailbox, to be exported, must exist in the Exchange database (EDB)
   

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,

• Open EAC and login as administrator
• Then navigate to Recipients > Mailboxesand click on 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 network) with 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 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.