Papandut.Com: like IT, blog IT, share IT, help with IT

Only disconnected mailboxes can be reconnected

This article explain about how to solve a problem of a disconnected mailbox that cannot be removed because the MaiboxGuid exist twice. The MailboxGuid of the disconnected mailbox is the same as the MailboxGuid of other active mailbox in different database. This problem arise when I disabled a mailbox of a user, created new mailbox for that user and moved the mailbox to other mailbox database.

On our Exchange 2007, there was a disconnected mailbox shown in Receipient Configuration - Disconnected Mailbox. I cannot remove this disconnected mailbox. When I tried to delete the disconnected mailbox, I got this message:
Remove-Mailbox : The mailbox that you specified is connected to “Username”. Only disconnected mailboxes can be reconnected. Specified mailbox: “0a6d5256-3bd0-4dc1-aedb-d1c6d15ca7f1″. At line:1 char:15

When I filter that mailbox:
$temp = Get-MailboxStatistics | Where {$_.DisplayName -eq “Username”} | SelectDisplayName,ItemCount,Database,MailboxGuid

The result shows:
DisplayName ItemCount Database MailboxGuid
Username 100 Mailbox DB1 abcd1234
Username 10 Mailbox DB2 abcd1234

[PS] C:\> Remove-Mailbox -Database “Support DB” -StoreMailboxIdentity “0a6d5256-3bd0-4dc1-aedb-d1c6d15ca7f1″
Remove-Mailbox : The mailbox that you specified is connected to “userX1″. Only disconnected mailboxes can be reconnected.
Specified mailbox: “4a11640c-4a6f-4fdf-850e-a90f00748386″.
At line:1 char:15
+ Remove-Mailbox <<<< -Database “MAIL01-SD\Third Storage Group\Mailbox Database 2″ -StoreMailboxIdentity “4a11640c-4a6f-4fdf-850e-a90f00748386″

Here are the steps to solve this problem:
1. Using EMC, open the properties of the disconnected mailbox’s database. Go to the Limits tab, set the “Keep deleted mailbox for (days)” to 0.
2. Run “Clean-MailboxDatabase” against both mailbox database. It will scan the disconnected mailbox that is not yet marked as disconnected in the mailbox database. You can follow the instructions in previous article. You can also wait for the database maintenance schedule to come so the system can remove the disconnected mailbox.
3. Using EMC, check the disconnected mailbox list. If the disconnected mailbox is still there, try to cmdlet to remove again.

If all those steps not working, you can try the following steps:
1. Backup current active mailbox to PST by using Export-Mailbox
2. Disable current mailbox in the EMC, run “Clean-MailboxDatabase” against both mailbox database
3. Check disconnected mailbox list, see if the old mailbox has gone, if yes, reconnect current one back

Related posts:

1. Remove disconnected mailboxes in Exchange 2007
2. How to update the Disconnected Mailbox list in Exchange 2007
3. Error moving default offline address book generation server
4. How to uninstall Exchange Server 2007