Fix the ‘mailbox export request stuck in queued’ issue in Exchange

Sunil Sharma

Updated On - October 19, 2022

Exchange Server is the best email server that takes care of all your enterprise-level emailing requirements, their security, and management. After you install the Exchange Server on the Windows Server Operating System, it takes care of all your emailing requirements.

Exchange is a mature platform, and its data is completely secure. It saves user data in the user mailbox, archive mailbox, shared mailbox, or public folder. But, nowadays, many administrators, want to take backups of user mailboxes saving their disk space. You can resolve this low disk space issue in Exchange Server database easily. There is a Mailbox Export Request cmdlet that will export your mailbox to a PST file. But sometimes when you run the Export Request job, then it is stuck in the queue and you will get the status as ‘queued’ only. Generally, the Export Request gets completed in an optimal time based on the size of the mailbox; but there can be several Exchange processes running in the background and disable the export process.

Here is the Mailbox Export command that you run in the Exchange Management Shell:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox Samantha -FilePath “\\SERVER225\PSTFileShare\Samantha_Mailbox.pst” >

The command will export of the Mailbox named Samantha to a PST file with the name Samatha_Mailbox.pst

When you check the status of the mailbox, it will show that it is queued. If the status remains queued for a long time, then you need to fix the issue as soon as possible.

Method 1
First, you need to know about the actual status of the job. So you should get the application log of the request using the below command:

Get-MailboxExportRequest | Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics –IncludeReport |FL >

The report will include the details of the Mailbox Export Request and information regarding what is stopping the command from running. If you can remove the obstacle and get the request completed, then it is fine, but if the Mailbox does not run, then you do not have any choice, but to delete it.

Get-MailboxExportRequest -Status Queued | Remove-MailboxExportRequest >

After removing the Export request, you can run it again.

Method 2. Update the Exchange Server
The latest version of the Exchange Server is always better than the previous one. Microsoft brings new security checks, better synchronization, and faster performance. Therefore, you should check if you using the updated version of Exchange Server or not, update to the latest one and run the Mailbox Export job again.

Method 3. Check the DAG environment and replication
The DAG group can contain up to 16 Exchange Servers and there are policies for data replication, server switchovers, failovers, etc. If the database is associated to a server that is the part of the DAG environment, then you need to check the replication policy of the group. Sometimes the replication policy of the DAG group may stop it from running the mailbox export request job. After handling the replication policy, you can continue to run the export request job.

Method 4. Use a professional tool to take the backup
Running a backup process for Exchange Mailbox is a tricky job that even a seasoned Exchange Administrator will find it harder to complete. When the number of mailbox increases and the size of the mailbox also gets bigger, then the backup process will take more time and the issue like ‘queued’ status is one of many problems.

To save your time and energy, you should take the assistance of professional software that is specially designed for the Exchange Server and easily recover mailboxes database in Exchange Server 2016 & take the backup in the PST format.

Recoveryfix for Exchange Server Recovery

Recoveryfix for Exchange Server Recovery tool takes the backup of Exchange Server mailboxes and saves them in a new PST file. The best thing is that that tool provides you effective filters and options for perform selective backup. Using this tool, you can perform Exchange recovery and Exchange/Office 365 migrations as well. Also, you can get log reports about the backup process. Its report will consist of the status of all backed up items and their location.