Exporting Exchange mailboxes to PST is a crucial task to export data outside the Exchange environment. IT admins follow this process to create backups to PST due to limited space in Exchange server and for several other reasons. The completion of the entire process leads to the conversion of the mailboxes to Portable Storage Table (PST) files. 

However, several issues such as permission issues, failed export request, misconfigured export request may stall the processing of the export task.,. Troubleshooting these issues is essential to ensure hassle-free export of mailboxes. This will also ensure proper functioning of the administrative processes and help organizations to safeguard, manage, and export user data with high efficiency. 

This content discusses the reasons for the Exchange mailbox export to PST, the issues arising during the process, and the possible resolutions. We will also talk about the role of an automated EDB to PST converter to deal with this situation.

Exporting Exchange Mailboxes to PST: Prominent Reasons

Several reasons may require you to export Exchange mailboxes to PST files while using on-premises Exchange Server 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019. Here are some of the key factors:

• Exporting selective mailboxes: The export process plays a vital role in migrating selective mailbox data from Exchange to PST. The migration task also maintains data integrity.
  
   
• Data backup: PST files can store all the mailbox content outside the Exchange environment, such as emails, contacts, attachments, calendars, notes, etc. An archived PST file can also minimize mailbox size, enhancing the performance and storage efficiency of the Exchange.
  
   
• Legal compliance: Often, organizations need to share copies of mailbox data with the government authorities for audits, legal issues, or investigations.
  
   
• Employee offboarding: Organizations prefer securely exporting the mailbox of a recently departed employee to PST for future reference. This frees up the space in the Exchange database while retaining a copy of the mailbox for further communication, if required.

Issues Arising During Exchange Export to PST and Their Resolution

Let’s find out the common issues that may obstruct the process of exporting Exchange mailboxes to PST followed by their relevant resolution: 

1. Permission Errors

Often, the account through which you are trying to export the Exchange mailbox does not have the requisite permission to serve the “Mailbox Import Export” role. When using PowerShell, you may encounter an unrecognized or denied New-MailboxExportRequest

Reasons and Resolution

By default, Exchange does not assign the Mailbox Import Export management role to any group. Therefore, you will need to use New-ManagementRoleAssignment through PowerShell or EAC to assign the role to a role group or directly to your admin account. Additionally, successful modifications in role assignment will need you to perform a server logoff/logon. 

2.  Network share and UNC Path Access

The export may be unsuccessful due to the inaccessibility of the target path for the PST or the denial of permission. In such circumstances, you cannot create a PST file.

Reasons and Resolution

This mostly happens if you export the Exchange mailbox to the local drive instead of a UNC network share. The solution is to share the target folder as a network share (UNC) and ensure its accessibility by the Exchange server. 

If the Exchange Trusted subsystem security group does not have Read/Write permissions on the share, grant the required permissions. To test if your resolution has worked, use the same credentials to ensure it is writable and visible.

3. Misconfigured Export Request  

The export request may fail to migrate the intended data due to invalid parameters in the configuration.

Reasons and Resolution

This mainly happens if you configure the parameters of New-MailboxExportRequest cmdlet, i.e., -IncludeFolders, -ExcludeFolders, -ContentFilter, incorrectly. This will exclude everything and filter incorrectly. To resolve the issue, you should define the filters, folder inclusion, and exclusion carefully. It will ensure that you do not eliminate all content.

Once a request starts, you can modify only a few selected properties (such as BadItemLimit or LargeItemLimit), instead of the entire request. So make sure to use Set-MailboxExportRequest only to change the allowed parameters on the incomplete requests. Once you modify a failed or suspended request, use Resume-MailboxExportRequest to resume it.

4. Suspended or Failed Export Requests

You may find Export requests failed or suspended mid-way. They never succeed or face termination with an error message.

Reasons and Resolution

The suspended state or termination of the Export request usually occurs due to internal issues, such as resource conflicts or errors.

If you want to halt an in-progress export, try Suspend-MailboxExportRequest. To resume a suspended or failed export request, use Resume-MailboxExportRequest

5. Incorrect Removal / Expiry of Export Requests

At times, export requests keep lingering in the system, causing severe issues. Likewise, partial mailbox export requests may also choke the Mailbox Replication service (MRS) queue. 

Reasons and Resolution

By default, completed export requests vanish after 30 days, but it is not so with failed requests. So, there is no default termination option for failed requests. To clean up failed or completed requests, use Remove-MailboxExportRequest. 

As an alternative, you may use RequestExpiryInterval to set a different behavior at the time of creating or changing an export request. It will clean up both the failed and completed requests after the completion of a pre-defined timespan you define.

As you can conclude, it needs deep technical knowledge and experience in troubleshooting the issues encountered during an Exchange mailbox export to PST. To make the migration easier and error-free, you can use Stellar Converter for EDB, an automated third-party EDB to PST converter.

Stellar Converter for EDB to Prevent Exchange Mailbox Export Errors

During the export of mailboxes to PST, the manual methods to prevent errors may not work properly or take too much time. To make way for an error-free and quick mailbox export to PST, using an EDB to PST converter is an ideal solution. Of the many applications available for this task, Stellar Converter for EDB is an extremely promising one.

• The software converts hosted or offline EDB files into PST
• Ensures 100% precision during the export of mailboxes without hampering server performance
• Exports larger mailboxes from assorted Exchange versions with the least effort
• Can extract mailboxes from old EDB files and export them in PST format
• Allows exporting both public and private folders to PST, which is not possible by using PowerShell cmdlets or EAC
• Converts EDB file to multiple file formats, such as EML, HTML, MSG, RTF, and PDF
• Converts Exchange mailboxes to PST in online mode without obstructing the user services
• Allows free enhanced preview of mailboxes and their contents before exporting to PST

The Exchange mailbox export to PST is easy and swift with Stellar Converter for EDB. You may refer to the detailed installation guide to carry out the process. You can choose from Corporate, Technician, or Toolkit editions of the EDB to PST converter based on your requirements.

Conclusion

The need to export Exchange mailboxes to PST arises due to several reasons. For instance, you may have to export selective mailboxes, backup data, save employee data after offboarding for further reference, or for legal compliance.

During the export using manual methods, you are likely to face several issues. These may include permission errors, or issues arising during network share and UNC path access, misconfigured export requests, suspended or failed export requests, and incorrect removal or expiry of export requests.

Manual resolution of these errors can be time-consuming and inefficient, leading to various issues. To avoid such hassles, using an EDB to PST converter, such as Stellar Converter for EDB, is a suitable tool. It helps to export Exchange mailboxes and their contents to PST without errors. You can buy this feature-loaded software from the official Stellar Info website.