How to Use Get-MailboxExportReqServeruest Cmdlet in Exchange Server?

When you export Exchange mailboxes to PST format, you use the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet. But this command doesn’t display any progress or status of export requests. To view the status, you need to use the Get-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet. The command will return the status as Queued, InProgress, Completed, or Failed. This will help you identify the stuck exports and get request identities needed for other cmdlets.

For a detailed progress metrics (percentage complete, bytes transferred, error codes), you can use the Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics cmdlet.  

What is Get-MailboxExportRequest?

The Get-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet, as the name implies, reads and displays the status of user mailbox, user archive and shared mailbox export request records which are stored in Exchange’s internal database. The command is used after you run the command New-MailboxExportRequest to check if exports are queued, running, completed, or failed. These statuses appear next to the export request.

You should note that it does not create, resume, or remove any exports from the list. The command is only for display and status purposes. If you want to resume a stopped export, use Resume-MailboxExportRequest. To create, use New-MailboxExportRequest and to remove a request, use Remove-MailboxExportRequest.

The command is available in Exchange Server 2010 SP1 and later. It cannot be used in Exchange Online/Microsoft 365.

If the Get-MailboxExportRequest command returns no output, the most common reason is that the Mailbox Import Export role has not been assigned or there were no exports executed. You should first assign it using the below command.

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role 'Mailbox Import Export' -SecurityGroup '<security group name>'

Syntax and Basic Usage

The command can be used on its own in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS).

Get-MailboxExportRequest

The command’s full parameters are:

Get-MailboxExportRequest [[-Identity] <MailboxExportRequestIdParameter>] [-BatchName <String>] [-Database <DatabaseIdParameter>] [-Mailbox <MailboxOrMailUserIdParameter>] [-Status <RequestStatus>] [-ResultSize <Unlimited>]

For full parameter reference, see: Get-MailboxExportRequest — Microsoft Learn.

Let’s know a bit about the common parameters used with the command.

To get all current export requests on the server, use it without parameters.

To get the status of a specific export request, run the command as given below.

Get-MailboxExportRequest -Identity '<user>\MailboxExport'

If you want to list all the details of the export, you can use the pipe to Format-List (FL) to expand all properties. This will list parameters such as Batch Name, the file path, database, and other details.

Get-MailboxExportRequest | fl

Parameters Reference

The following table covers all the commonly used parameters for Get-MailboxExportRequest, along with an example.

Status Values Explained

The table below explains each status value, meaning of the status, and the action that can be taken to resolve the issue.

When an export’s status shows CompletedWithWarning, it does not mean the export has failed. The PST file was created but some items were skipped due to corruption or bad item limits. You should always check BadItemCount in Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics with the FL parameter after a CompletedWithWarning result in the export.

Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity <user> | FL

This will return all the information related to the export. You should look for BadItemFilter, BadItemsEncountered, LargeItemLimit, and LargeItemsEncountered.

Common Monitoring Scenarios

The following table covers the most common scenarios where you can use the Get-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet.

Use Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics for Detailed Progress

For further investigation, you can use the Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics command, which will provide full details of the export. Let’s explore the command and its uses.

Basic statistics for a single request with basic details.

Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity '<user>\MailboxExport'

These are the key fields to check during an active export.

Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity '<user>\MailboxExport' | fl PercentComplete,Status,BytesTransferred,ItemsTransferred,BadItemCount,Message

Get the statistics for all the requests in one command.

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics | Select SourceMailboxIdentity,Status,PercentComplete,BytesTransferred | Format-Table

Find failure reason for a failed request for a specified user export.

Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity '<user>\MailboxExport' | fl FailureCode,FailureSide,Message,BadItemCount

For full parameter reference, read: Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics — Microsoft Learn.

Bulk Monitoring and Pipeline Examples

The combination of different commands with pipelines are useful when managing large number of export requests to get a better scenario of the exports and for automating the exports reporting.

Generate a full status report for all requests in a CSV file.

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics | Select DisplayName,Status,PercentComplete,BytesTransferred,BadItemCount,FailureCode | Export-Csv -Path C:\Reports\ExportStatus.csv -NoTypeInformation

This below command will find and resume all suspended requests. If it returns no results, this means that there are no suspended mailbox exports.

Get-MailboxExportRequest -Status Suspended | Resume-MailboxExportRequest

For finding requests older than 7 days that are still in progress, use the below command. These exports are most probably stuck. This is a very good report you can generate as there could be other reasons why the export is stuck.

Get-MailboxExportRequest -Status InProgress | Where-Object {$_.QueuedTimestamp -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)}

When the requests are completed, the Exchange Server will not clean the requests from the list. To do this, you can use the below command to remove all exports which are completed.

Get-MailboxExportRequest -Status Completed | Remove-MailboxExportRequest

Note: You should always verify the PST files exist at the destination path before removing completed export requests. This is a destructive pipeline that removes all completed request records in one command. It is recommended to always run Get-MailboxExportRequest -Status Completed first to review the list and then use Remove-MailboxExportRequest only after confirming.

Troubleshooting the Failed or Suspended Export Requests

The table below can help you in the diagnostics and troubleshooting failed or suspended exports displayed by Get-MailboxExportRequest.

When Get-MailboxExportRequest is not Enough

There are instances when the native method to export mailboxes and other resources from an Exchange Server would not be enough. Both the import or export commands will not be run if the server is not running or the database is not mounted. In addition, the command – Get-MailboxExportRequest – may show the Status: Failed with database-related error codes.

In such cases, you can use Stellar Converter for EDB to export the mailboxes to PST. It can open the EDB directly without needing a running export service and from an online database (without the need to unmount it). The software supports any version of Exchange Server database.

Stellar Converter for EDB does not require an RBAC role assigned unlike the commands. Even if the native export command is complete, there is a risk that the exported PST file may be corrupted or incomplete. With Stellar Converter for EDB, you can have a full HTML pre-export preview to verify data before conversion.

This software not only exports user mailboxes, user archive, or shared mailboxes but it can also export disabled mailboxes, public folders, and deleted/purged items.

For detailed information on exporting Exchange mailboxes to PST, see the Exchange mailbox export guide.

Conclusion

When you export mailboxes to PST using the New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet in Exchange Server, it doesn’t show the status of the export requests. You have to use the Get-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet to know the status. This guide explains how to use this cmdlet, along with various parameters. However, to run this cmdlet, you need to have the Mailbox Import Export RBAC role, mounted database, and a working Exchange Server.