Reconnect a Disconnected Mailbox in Exchange Server

Disconnected mailboxes remain in the database of the Exchange Server until the specified retention time has ended. If you are facing the inaccessibility to reach your mailbox, then in this article, you will get to know the possible solutions to Reconnect a disconnected mailbox in Exchange server.

Let’s start with the known facts about the disconnected mailboxes.

How Mailboxes get Disconnected in Exchange Server?

When the mailbox objects that are no longer associated with the user account of Active Directory and are automatically cleaned when the default time period (30 days) is up. This is called a disconnected mailbox. Exchange administrators have the right to reconnect the disconnected mailbox if the need occurs but only within the retention period.

This is all about disconnected mailboxes. Now, understand it by some scenarios as mention below:

When the Exchange Mailbox is disabled–

The Exchange mailbox still remains in the database of the server, but it is unavailable due to the disabled state. It remains in disabled status until the retention period (default 30 days) has expired, then It gets deleted from the database after that.

When the Exchange Mailbox is soft-deleted or removed–

These mailboxes are also called disconnected mailboxes as a user can not access it until they are linked back to the user account. Within the retention period, a soft-deleted mailbox may be recovered.

Now move further to know its various manual ways. The manual ways are given for the Exchange server 2010 and 2016.

How to Reconnect Disconnected Mailbox in Exchange Server 2010?

There are various steps to be followed by you as given below:

Step 1: Checking the Deleted Mailbox Retention Policy

1. Initially, open the Exchange Management Console (EMC).
2. Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises (server name) in the navigation pane.
3. Then expand Organization Configuration
4. Choose Mailbox
5. Next, Choose the Database Management tab in the Mailbox pane.
6. Go to the respective Mailbox Database that you are verifying and right-click on it.
7. Then go to properties >>hit the Limits Tab
8. Check the deletion settings and adjust as needed.

Once you’ve checked your retention policy for deleted mailboxes, you’ll know if the mailbox you deleted should still be open. Because Exchange keeps on to these deleted mailboxes and disconnects them temporarily, you’ll want to check the list of disconnected mailboxes.

Step 2: Access to Disconnected Mailboxes

1. Expand Microsoft Exchange On-Premises (server name) under the EMC
2. Then expand the Recipient Configuration
3. Choose Disconnected Mailboxes

You may or may not see the mailbox you want to recover under disconnected mailboxes. Do not panic if there is no list of the recently removed mailbox here. Deleted mailboxes will not appear in the mailboxes being removed until Exchange clears the database. This process involves Exchange the active directory for any mailboxes that are disconnected and updating the Exchange store.

Step 3: Clean Mailbox Databases

1. Hit Start and type Exchange Management Shell
2. Do a right-click on Exchange Management Shell >> Run as Administrator
3. Type the following command when it prompts: Get-Mailboxdatabase | Clean-MailboxDatabase

If it returns to the next command line, you should be able to open the Exchange Management Console and see the deleted Mailbox listed under Disconnected Mailboxes successfully. Through right-clicking on it, you will attempt to reconnect the mailbox, and press Connect and follow the wizard.

There are many cases where this method may not work. Then use the Exchange Power Shell to reconnect a disconnected mailbox in Exchange server and then checking the account settings.

Step 4: Reconnecting a Mailbox and Verifying

1. Initially, open Exchange Power Shell as Administrator
2. Next, type and run the following command:
   Connect-Mailbox -Identity “username” -Database “Mailbox Database” -User “username”.
3. Back to Exchange Management Console.
4. Extend Recipient Configuration.
5. Then refresh Disconnected Mailboxes.
6. Choose the Mailbox under Recipient Configuration.
7. Next, double click your restored mailbox.
8. Review the Alias under the General tab.
9. Review the STMP address within the E-Mail addresses tab.

If everything goes right, sign in to your Outlook or OWA and verify and evaluate the sending/receiving.
These are the simple steps to reconnect the mailboxes that are disconnected. But these steps are pretty much complex so to avoid these complexities, you can Convert EDB to PST for converting the mailbox in Exchange database into PST that can later be imported to the Exchange database to get connected.

Also Read: Resolve Outlook Sending Error 0x80040201

Conclusion

We have given “how mailboxes get disconnected in Exchange server” in the first section then the next section is provided with manual solutions to reconnect a disconnected mailbox in Exchange server. Also, to avoid the complexities with manual approach a direct method has been given. If you are facing other complexities like Unavailability of Exchange Server then you can go through our articles. I hope, you found it helpful.