How to Use NewMailboxRepairRequest in Exchange Server?

Himanshu Goyal

Updated On - October 19, 2022

Exchange databases gets corrupt due to various reasons, which makes them inaccessible. And users don’t even realize that their mailboxes are corrupt or consist of corrupt items. Repairing these mailboxes is very crucial, else you might end up losing your Exchange data.

Also, it is necessary to note that when a mailbox is being repaired in Exchange, mailbox access is disrupted, which means if you are performing a repair on a specific mailbox, it will be inaccessible by any user. To repair Exchange mailboxes from corrupt EDB files, Microsoft introduced a new feature in Exchange Server – New-Mailbox-Repair-Request cmdlet.

Using this cmdlet in Exchange Management Shell, you can quickly repair corrupt Exchange mailboxes. Following corruption errors and issues can be fixed using this command:

• Search folder corruption errors (using Search Folder parameter)
• Incorrect views on the folder (using FolderView parameter)
• Aggregate counts on the folder that don’t reflect the correct values (using AggregateCounts parameter)
• Provisioned folders that don’t point correctly to parent folders (using ProvisionFolder parameter)

Now, to use this command in Exchange Server, you need admin permission, else you will receive an access denied error message.

Using the New-Mailbox-Repair-Request cmdlet

After getting permission from the Exchange Admin, you can use the New-Mailbox-Repair-Request cmdlet to repair mailboxes. Below we have given a few examples of using this cmdlet.

• To resolve Folder View corruption errors, use the below command. Running this command will detect and repair all folder views for the mailbox listed in the command.

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox User@domain.com -CorruptionType FolderView

• To detect and repair corruption errors for a mailbox, including their archive mailboxes, use the following command:

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox User1 -CorruptionType ProvisionedFolder,SearchFolder,AggregateCounts,Folderview -Archive

• To detect and repair aggregate counts for the corrupted mailboxes, use the following command:

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Database DB01 -CorruptionType AggregateCounts

These commands will resolve most of the errors associated with your Exchange mailboxes. However, if the cmdlet doesn’t display any result for the mailbox after repairing, then you will have to access the event log application (under Source Exchange Server), where you will be able to check the repair status along with the Event ID.

Using this command, most of the mailbox corruption can be fixed, but it is not viable if the mailboxes are highly corrupt and inaccessible. In such cases, you need reliable software that can quickly repair corrupt Exchange mailboxes – Recoveryfix for Exchange Server Recovery.

Using Recoveryfix for Exchange Server Recovery
Recoveryfix for Exchange Server is a useful utility to fix all corruption errors of Exchange mailboxes. It is designed with powerful algorithms that make it capable of repairing Exchange database files and exporting mailbox data to other platforms. Also, the working process of the tool is very simple.

1. Install and configure the software on your system.
2. After launching the tool, a window with Add Source heading will display on the screen. Click the Offline EDB option, and then click Next.



3. Select the corrupt EDB file from your system and click Next.



Note: You can use the Search feature to find the EDB files on your system.

4. In the next step, select the desired scanning method to repair the corrupt EDB file and click Next.



5. Once the EDB file is repaired, a confirmation message will pop-up on the screen. Click Finish to preview the mailboxes of the EDB file.



6. To export the repaired mailboxes to PST file format, right-click on the mailbox and select the Export mailboxes to PST option.



7. The Export Mailboxes wizard will pop-up on the screen, select the folders that you want to export to PST.



8. If you want to set specific filters to the mailboxes, click the Set Filter option. From the filter section, apply specific filters to the mailbox, and click OK.



9. Select a location on your system to save the recovered mailboxes, and then click Export.



10. The tool will start exporting repaired mailboxes to PST. Once the export process is complete, a notification will appear on the screen, click OK.



11. Another confirmation window will appear on the screen with the exported mailboxes summary. Click OK to end the process.

And that’s how you can repair highly corrupt Exchange mailboxes from EDB files.

Conclusion
Repairing corrupt mailboxes in Exchange is crucial to retrieve your inaccessible Exchange data. In this blog, we discussed how you could repair corrupt mailboxes with the New-Mailbox Request cmdlet, as well as an alternative solution.