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"We are preparing a mailbox for this user" - stuck here after migration RRS feed

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    Hello,

    We have an Exchange 2016 Enterprise on-premise environment synced with Office 365 online. We recently migrated most of our user mailboxes to the cloud. It generally works seamlessly but every now and then, one mailbox will give me headaches and get stuck in an in-between state.

    My situation right now is as follows: one user's mailbox shows as office 365 mailbox type on the on-premise admin center. Fine. On the Ms 365 admin center, it shows as "licensed" (Office 365 Enterprise E3) and "synced wit hActive directory". However, under "Mail settings" for that user appears the message "We are preparing a mailbox for this user" and it's been stuck in that state for about 48 hours.

    A colleague of mine (who is not available currently) solved a similar problem some time ago; I remember it involved very precise and ordered steps but cannot find a detailed procedure online. All I find are incomplete or not applicable articles.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks in advance!

    Chris
    Thursday, March 14, 2019 8:22 AM

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    OK, managed to solve the problem. Thanks to all for your input!

    In case someone is faced with the same issue, here's what worked for me: in Exchange admin center on-premise, DISABLED the mailbox (this removes all the Exchange attributes and reverses the user to a non mail enabled user). Once the sync has done its job, recreate a mailbox for the user and force on-premise / azure sync. Run a New-MoveRequest and wait for it to complete. Done!

    Best regards,

    Chris

    • Marked as answer by Chris DSL Monday, March 18, 2019 8:34 AM
    Monday, March 18, 2019 8:33 AM

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    Hi Chris,

    Please check if the "C" attribute has been set to any value in this problematic user in attribute editor, like below:

    If it has been set, try to compare this attribute with other normal users and check if any difference, if not the same, change it to the value the same as other users, then force a DirSync to replicate:

    1. Connect to Office 365 PowerShell
    2. Run the following command to force a dirsync:

    Start-ADSyncSyncCycle -PolicyType initial
    Once replication completed, please check if the same issue persists.

    Best Regards,
    Niko Cheng

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    Friday, March 15, 2019 6:39 AM
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    Hi Niko,

    Thank you for your answer. I checked the attribute you mention and it is set to the same value for the problem user as it is for any other "working" user.

    If it's any help, I sort of remember the solution my colleague used involved reversing the mailbox migration, then making sure there's no trace left of it in Azure and starting the migration again. problem is, I'm not sure of the exact steps involved to achieve this.

    Best regards,

    Chris

    Friday, March 15, 2019 7:27 AM
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    Hi Chris,

    You can also run the following command to retrieve the errors on the problematic user object, that would give us more clues to help troubleshoot the issue:

    $errors = (get-msoluser -userprincipalname "Username@domain.com").Error
    $errors | foreach-object {"`nService: "+ $_.ErrorDetail.Name.split("/")[0]; "Error Message: "+ $_.ErrorDetail.ObjectErrors.ErrorRecord.ErrorDescription}

    Here is a similar case for your reference:

    Office 365 Error - stuck at "We are preparing a mailbox for this user"(PS: you can right click the sidebar in Chrome, click inspect element, then press Delete to delete the sidebar)

    Please note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. And the changes made in the above blog is not supported officially by Microsoft.

    Best Regards,
    Niko Cheng

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    Friday, March 15, 2019 9:36 AM
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    Hi Niko,

    Running these PS commands, I do not get any error message for that user (apart from the "You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression")

    Best regards,
    Chris

    Friday, March 15, 2019 9:49 AM
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    Hi Niko,

    Running these PS commands, I do not get any error message for that user (apart from the "You cannot call a method on a null-valued expression")

    Best regards,
    Chris

    Does the mailbox show up if you check with Exchange Online powershell get-mailbox <user>?

    Are you saying the user cant access the mailbox via Outlook nor OWA?

    Friday, March 15, 2019 9:52 AM
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    The Get-Mailbox commandlet just says 

    "The operation cannot be performed because object 'user@domain.com' couldn't be found on <SERVER>.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM"

    As I said, I'm in a sort of in-between state here, where the user appears in the Ms 365 admin center and "looks" OK until you check the Mail Settings.

    I started investigating this issue because the user in question mentioned she gets an error message when starting Outlook. After making sure the client was not the culprit, I went and checked her O365 account and that's where I noticed that "preparing a mailbox" issue.

    Best regards,
    Chris

    Friday, March 15, 2019 10:28 AM
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    The Get-Mailbox commandlet just says 

    "The operation cannot be performed because object 'user@domain.com' couldn't be found on <SERVER>.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM"

    As I said, I'm in a sort of in-between state here, where the user appears in the Ms 365 admin center and "looks" OK until you check the Mail Settings.

    I started investigating this issue because the user in question mentioned she gets an error message when starting Outlook. After making sure the client was not the culprit, I went and checked her O365 account and that's where I noticed that "preparing a mailbox" issue.

    Best regards,
    Chris

    Ok, does the mailbox still show on-prem?

    What does the move request look like?

    Get-MoveRequestStatistics <user> -IncludeReport |FL report

    Friday, March 15, 2019 10:44 AM
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    The mailbox still shows on-prem, with an 'Office 365' mailbox type.

    Get-MoveRequestStatistics returns that "Couldn't find a move request that corresponds to the specified identity 'user@domain.com' "

    Friday, March 15, 2019 10:49 AM
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    The mailbox still shows on-prem, with an 'Office 365' mailbox type.

    Get-MoveRequestStatistics returns that "Couldn't find a move request that corresponds to the specified identity 'user@domain.com' "

    Run that from Exchange Online Powershell:

    Get-MoveRequestStatistics <user> -IncludeReport |FL report

    If it shows as Office 365 on-prem , then its now a remote mailbox on-prem

    Friday, March 15, 2019 10:51 AM
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    I did run that last command on Exchange Online Powershell. That's where it returns the error that 

    "Couldn't find a move request that corresponds to the specified identity 'user@domain.com' "

    Friday, March 15, 2019 10:57 AM
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    I did run that last command on Exchange Online Powershell. That's where it returns the error that 

    "Couldn't find a move request that corresponds to the specified identity 'user@domain.com' "

    Strange, someone must have deleted it.

    Well, if things just arent working, you can always move the mailbox back, then try to mvoe it back to 365 once again.

    Friday, March 15, 2019 11:33 AM
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    I'm afraid I tried that already... A new-moverequest from 365 to on-premise gives the error 
    Source user <username> doesn't have a primary mailbox.


    Friday, March 15, 2019 12:31 PM
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    I'm afraid I tried that already... A new-moverequest from 365 to on-premise gives the error 
    Source user <username> doesn't have a primary mailbox.


    Can you verify that the user is licensed in 365 and/or not soft deleted?

    get-mailbox <user> -softdeletedMailbox

    also check to see what its set as

    get-recipient <user> in Exchange Online and on-prem 

    Its going to be hard to know what happened without that move request info
    Friday, March 15, 2019 12:54 PM
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    Here the results for Online:

    • the Ms 365 admin center shows user as licensed
    • Get-Mailbox returns error "The operation couldn't be performed because object 'user@domain.com' couldn't be found on <SERVER>.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM"
    • Get-Recipient returns <user name>  MailUser

    On-premise:

    • Get-Mailbox returns error "The operation couldn't be performed because object 'user@domain.com' couldn't be found on <SERVER>.<LOCAL DOMAIN>"
    • Get-Recipient returns the same as online, being <user name> MailUser

    Side note: trying to migrate back through the EAC is also impossible because the user does not appear in the list of mailboxes that can be moved...

    Friday, March 15, 2019 1:05 PM
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    Here the results for Online:

    • the Ms 365 admin center shows user as licensed
    • Get-Mailbox returns error "The operation couldn't be performed because object 'user@domain.com' couldn't be found on <SERVER>.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM"
    • Get-Recipient returns <user name>  MailUser

    On-premise:

    • Get-Mailbox returns error "The operation couldn't be performed because object 'user@domain.com' couldn't be found on <SERVER>.<LOCAL DOMAIN>"
    • Get-Recipient returns the same as online, being <user name> MailUser

    Side note: trying to migrate back through the EAC is also impossible because the user does not appear in the list of mailboxes that can be moved...

    Ok, if both 365 and on-prem show the recipient type as "MailUser" then something is definitely broke.

    So you sure no move request listed for that user?

    Not even with a broad sweep like 

    Get-MoveRequest -MoveStatus CompletedWithWarning

    or 

    Get-MoveRequest -MoveStatus Failed

    or 

    Get-MoveRequest -MoveStatus InProgress

    In theory you should be able to recover the soft deleted mailbox on-prem with 

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/restore-a-soft-deleted-mailbox-exchange-2013-help

    But honestly,what you are desribing I have never seen before so I would really recommend you open a ticket with Office 365 support so no further damage is done 

    Friday, March 15, 2019 1:59 PM
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    OK, managed to solve the problem. Thanks to all for your input!

    In case someone is faced with the same issue, here's what worked for me: in Exchange admin center on-premise, DISABLED the mailbox (this removes all the Exchange attributes and reverses the user to a non mail enabled user). Once the sync has done its job, recreate a mailbox for the user and force on-premise / azure sync. Run a New-MoveRequest and wait for it to complete. Done!

    Best regards,

    Chris

    • Marked as answer by Chris DSL Monday, March 18, 2019 8:34 AM
    Monday, March 18, 2019 8:33 AM
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    Hi Chris,

    Glad you solved the issue and thanks for your kindly sharing, it would help other community members as well.

    Best Regards,
    Niko Cheng

    Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnsf@microsoft.com.


    Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams.

    Monday, March 18, 2019 9:24 AM