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Practical 365

You are here: Home / Exchange Server / Exchange 2010 FAQ: What is the Difference Between Disabling and Removing a Mailbox

Exchange 2010 FAQ: What is the Difference Between Disabling and Removing a Mailbox

February 6, 2011 by Paul Cunningham 25 Comments

Question: What is the difference between disabling and removing an Exchange 2010 mailbox using the Exchange Management Console?

Something that I see a lot of new Exchange administrators get mixed up with is the difference between disabling and removing mailboxes in Exchange Server 2010.

In the Exchange Management Console when a mailbox is selected the actions pane shows two tasks; Disable and Remove.

Exchange 2010 FAQ: What is the Difference Between Disabling and Removing a Mailbox
Exchange 2010 mailbox tasks: Disable and Remove

These two tasks do the following:

  • Disable will remove the Exchange attributes for the user account but leave the user account in Active Directory.  The mailbox is then also left in the Exchange mailbox database until the retention period has lapsed, then it is removed permanently.
  • Remove will remove both the Exchange mailbox and the user account from Active Directory

Unfortunately some admins wrongly assume that Disable is for temporarily disabling mailboxes, and that Remove will only remove the mailbox and not the user account.

If you’re having trouble remember the correct usage of these tasks think about it in terms of the Exchange Management Shell commands and how they pair up.

  • Enable-Mailbox is for creating a mailbox for an existing user, and Disable-Mailbox removes only the Exchange attributes from the user account
  • New-Mailbox is for creating a new AD user and mailbox at the same time, and Remove-Mailbox removes both the mailbox and the user object.

But if thats too hard just to try to remember that Disable is the safest option, because you can quickly reconnect the mailbox to the user again if it is still within the retention period.

Exchange Server EMC, EMS, Exchange 2010, Mailboxes

Comments

  1. kathleen says

    May 9, 2020 at 5:14 am

    Can you change this default 30 days and where would i do that?

    Reply
  2. Grant N says

    May 28, 2019 at 1:36 am

    What would be helpful, is if Disable did not also Remove the email account after the retention period. Disable in Exchange, means Stop using the email account, then delete it after 30 days.

    Would have been nice if disable, just disabled the account.

    The Exchange Account options should have been:

    Disable the Email Account. ( Stops receiving email, still accessible )
    Disable then Remove the Email Account after Retention expires.
    Remove the Email Account Immediately.
    Remove the Email Account and the Domain Account Immediately

    So many times it has happened someone has meant to only remove the email account and instead removed the entire account.

    Reply
  3. Manz khan says

    January 18, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    Dear Paul,

    As I am getting a strange problem in exchange 2010 only one user gets the prompt of entering username and password..as I checked everything is fine and I moved his mailbox to different databases also but still it prompts and what did work around installed fresh win 10 , office 2010 but also not solved the problem and read plenty of blogs …and done all the changes nothing helped .like credential manager , NTLM, DNS I am not understanding what could be this now I am planning to disable the mailbox and connect it again will this will be helpfull ? as it has lost the AD sid string to connect . please help

    Reply
  4. Vijay Birari says

    June 20, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    Dear Paul Sir,

    Could you tell me the default retention period of Disable mailbox

    Reply
    • Paul Cunningham says

      June 21, 2017 at 7:39 am

      30 days.

      Reply
  5. Vijay Birari says

    June 20, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    Dear Paul Sir,

    Could you tell me the fault retention period of Disable mailbox

    Reply
  6. jessi says

    December 2, 2016 at 8:27 pm

    very helpful posting, but how can i disable all resigned staff at the same time ..? (beginner) ex: i have txt file(UPN list) that have to be disable

    Reply
    • jessi says

      December 2, 2016 at 8:31 pm

      or can i disable mailbox OU ??

      Reply
    • Paul Cunningham says

      December 5, 2016 at 4:48 pm

      Disable their mailboxes or their accounts?

      Reply
  7. Lisa says

    November 12, 2016 at 8:51 am

    I just want to completely DELETE, GONE, HAVE NO MORE 2 accounts. Can l do this prior to having a breakdown, or must we take valium first?

    Reply
  8. jc says

    September 3, 2015 at 8:22 pm

    ..and it´s good to remember when disabling mailbox – it also disconnects archive mailbox and that you cannot reconnect again like primary mailbox – right ?
    /jc

    “Disabling mailbox “Xxxxx Xxxxx” will remove the Exchange properties from the Active Directory user object and mark the mailbox in the database for removal. If the mailbox has an archive or remote archive, the archive will also be marked for removal. In the case of remote archives, this action is permanent. You can’t reconnect this user to the remote archive again.”

    Reply
  9. Minstralm says

    January 13, 2015 at 8:45 am

    People think in opposites, Disable – Enable, Delete -Create, Remove-Add

    2008 Exchange is VERY inconsistent- sometimes it says Apply sometimes OK or even other words like Confirm . I think the Software engineers didn’t have a continuity checker.

    Reply
    • Minstralm says

      January 13, 2015 at 8:46 am

      I meant Exchange 2007 and s2010

      Reply
  10. EK Koay says

    September 23, 2014 at 5:30 pm

    Hi Paul,

    What if we accidentally click Remove rather than Disable? Can we still re-connect back the disconnected mailbox if it is still within retention period? Please advise. Thanks.

    Reply
    • Paul Cunningham says

      September 24, 2014 at 1:20 pm

      Yes.

      https://www.practical365.com/reconnect-disconnected-mailbox-exchange-server-2010/

      Reply
  11. Chaitu says

    February 21, 2014 at 5:23 pm

    Why can’t Microsoft just rename “Disable” to “Disconnect” when “Disconnect a mailbox” is the term used to explain the present “Disable” named task. 🙂

    Reply
    • Paul Cunningham says

      February 21, 2014 at 7:58 pm

      I see your point, but on the other hand I also see why enable/disable makes sense.

      And let’s also remember that it does warn the administrator what “Remove” is about to do. Admins should know to read warnings, surely 🙂

      Reply
      • Chaitu says

        February 25, 2014 at 5:22 pm

        I absolutely agree with you about reading warnings these days.. unlike before.

        Reply
  12. Richard says

    September 8, 2012 at 12:10 am

    It’s terrible terminology. I once had to deal with the fallout when someone deleted all the users in a domain instead of removing their mailboxes.

    Reply

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