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Accidental archiving of all mailboxes

mattlee1983
Level 3

Hello,

 

I had to do Exchange Mailbox Archiving of a few mailboxes but when I run the task I had accidentally selected 'All Mailboxes'.  When I realised my mistake (instantly!) I immediately stopped the task.  Then started it again once stopped - is this enough to stop processing all mailboxes?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Matt

 

EDIT: Even if it does run, does this still observe archiving schedules - i.e. if users email is set to archive after 6 months, and all mailboxes are archived, it is only stuff that is older than 6 months?

 

Thanks again.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

TonySterling
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

The run now uses the Mailbox Policy, so only items that would have been archived on a scheduled run will be archived on a Run Now.

 

Regards,

View solution in original post

5 REPLIES 5

Simon_B_
Level 6
Partner Accredited

The Mailboxes to process could still be listed in the MSMQ. Purge the Queues A3 and A5.

If you do a run now the archiving still takes place according the settings defined in the mailbox policy. If you are archiving based on age and did NOT check "start with items larger then", then only elements older than the specified setting get archived.

JosephRodgers
Level 4
Employee Accredited Certified

Matt,

 

Stop the tasks again and check the MSMQ queue A3 (more info in the Administrators guide) .  This queue contains entries for "Run Now".  Deleting these entries will stop unprocessed mailboxes from being archived.

Run Now does not respect the scheduled archiving (the time slots used to automatic archiving run) but it does respect the mailbox policy settings.  If your policy is set to archive mail older than 6 months that is all that will be archived.  Mailbox policy always controls what email will be archived unless users manually archive items.

mattlee1983
Level 3

Thanks guys,

 

My real worry was that it was going to archive ALL mail!

 

I can rest easy if it still adheres to retention policies!

 

Thanks again,

 

Matt

mattlee1983
Level 3

Right, I've checked A3 and A5 queues and they both have a lot of 'Process Mailbox'

 

A3 also has a few 'Archive Mailbox' - what is the difference?  I'm not going to Purge as long as I know not all mail will be NOT be archived?

TonySterling
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

The run now uses the Mailbox Policy, so only items that would have been archived on a scheduled run will be archived on a Run Now.

 

Regards,