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delete a mailbox in Exchange 2007 without affecting the AD user RRS feed

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    I need to delete a mailbox in Exchange 2007 without affecting the AD user.

    Back story:  one of our admins needed Extended Attribute 6 configured.  I couldn't figure out how to do it without using Exchange, so I unnecessarily created mailboxes for 15 users.  I would like to clean up my mess now (e.g. delete the mailbox), but need to do it without (1) deleting the AD user and (2) without affecting the extended attributes.

    From my research, I see that neither Remove-Mailbox nor Disable-Mailbox will achieve what I am looking for:
    Remove-Mailbox will delete the AD user
    Disable-Mailbox will remove attributes and the mailbox is not deleted
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997210(v=exchg.80).aspx

    Any ideas on how I should proceed?

    Thanks,
    Elizabeth

    Friday, October 19, 2012 8:29 PM

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    Hello,

    Yes, remove-mailbox will delete the AD user, and disable-mailbox will remove attributes and the mailbox is not deleted.  Maybe you need running some scripts to realize it.

    Cara Chen

    TechNet Community Support

    Monday, October 22, 2012 8:53 AM
    Moderator

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    Detach Mailbox from User Account

    To Detach or Disconnect a Exchange Mailbox from a user account use Disable-Mailbox in powershell.  This removes the exchange attributes from the user account in Active Directory.

    To reattach the mailbox to another user account use Connect-Mailbox

    You can also permanently delete a disconnected mailbox at any time by using the Remove-Mailbox cmdlet in the Exchange Management Shell.

    I copied it from here: http://clintboessen.blogspot.com/2010/07/detach-mailbox-from-user-account.html

    Create a test user with mailbox and test it.

    Thank you.

    Please “Vote As Helpful” and/or “Mark As Answer” if this post helped you.


    Friday, October 19, 2012 9:06 PM
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    Hello,

    Yes, remove-mailbox will delete the AD user, and disable-mailbox will remove attributes and the mailbox is not deleted.  Maybe you need running some scripts to realize it.

    Cara Chen

    TechNet Community Support

    Monday, October 22, 2012 8:53 AM
    Moderator
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    Detach Mailbox from User Account

    To Detach or Disconnect a Exchange Mailbox from a user account use Disable-Mailbox in powershell.  This removes the exchange attributes from the user account in Active Directory.

    I want to remove the mailbox without removing attributes, specifically extensionAttribute6.  Are "Extension Attributes" that I want to preserve considered "Exchange Attributes"?
    Monday, October 22, 2012 3:04 PM
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    Hello,

    This is hardly realized. Maybe someone can provide some scripts to do it.

    Cara Chen

    TechNet Community Support

    Tuesday, October 23, 2012 1:26 AM
    Moderator