Archive mailbox issues for a mailbox that's migrated to or from Microsoft 365

Original KB number: 2757430

Problem

When you migrate a mailbox to or from Microsoft 365 and use an archive mailbox, you experience an issue in which the Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication service (MRS) in Microsoft Exchange Online stamps the target domain value of the ArchiveDomain property of the mailbox at the end of the migration.

There are five scenarios that are related to archive mailboxes. Each scenario requires a different resolution.

• Scenario 1 - Onboarding: You move your on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server mailboxes to Exchange Online.
• Scenario 2 - Onboarding: Your archive mailbox exists in Exchange Online, and you move your primary mailbox from your on-premises Exchange Server environment to Exchange Online.
• Scenario 3 - Offboarding: You enable an archive mailbox and then migrate both your primary and archive mailboxes from Exchange Online to your on-premises Exchange Server environment. A similar scenario occurs when your primary mailbox is already on-premises and you decide to offboard your archive mailbox from Exchange Online to your on-premises Exchange Server environment.
• Scenario 4 - Offboarding: Your primary mailbox does not have an archive mailbox enabled, and you move your primary mailbox from Exchange Online to your on-premises Exchange Server environment.
• Scenario 5 - Offboarding: Your primary mailbox exists in your on-premises Exchange Server environment, and your archive mailbox exists in Exchange Online. This scenario may occur when you take one of the following actions:
  • You offboard your primary mailbox. However, you leave your archive mailbox in Exchange Online.
  • Both primary and archive mailboxes are located in your on-premises Exchange Server environment. However, you onboard only your archive mailbox.

  Note

  The only supported archive split scenario is a primary mailbox on-premises and an archive mailbox in Exchange Online.

Cause

This issue occurs if a mailbox is migrated between an on-premises Exchange Server environment and Exchange Online.

If you use the following Windows PowerShell cmdlet to view the archive properties, you notice that the archive status is Active. However, much of the archive information is missing.

Get-Mailbox alias |fl Name, Archive*

When you run the cmdlet, the result resembles the following:

Name : jsmith
ArchiveDatabase :
ArchiveGuid : 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
ArchiveName : {}
ArchiveQuota : 100 GB (107,374,182,400 bytes)
ArchiveWarningQuota : 90 GB (96,636,764,160 bytes)
ArchiveDomain : contoso.mail.onmicrosoft.com
ArchiveStatus : Active

Solution

To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods, as appropriate for your scenario.

Scenario 1

The issue in scenario 1 was resolved as follows: All onboarding migrations to Exchange Online are addressed and the ArchiveDomain property is no longer set until the archive mailbox is enabled by the tenant administrator.

Before this issue was resolved, users reported the presence of an archive mailbox in Outlook and received authentication prompts. However, users can't see the same archive mailbox in Outlook Web App. (Microsoft refers to the archive as a 'ghost archive' because it is not a true archive mailbox that can be accessed by users.

Scenario 2

The issue in scenario 2 was resolved as follows: The MRS component that's responsible for moving mailboxes now correctly factors in the presence of an Exchange Online archive mailbox. Therefore, users can correctly access their archive mailboxes in Outlook or Outlook Web App without any errors. No action is required.

Scenario 3

The issue in both variations of scenario 3 is resolved as follows: MRS in Exchange Online sets the value of the ArchiveDomain property to the on-premises domain. Therefore, users can correctly access their archive mailboxes in Outlook or Outlook Web App without any errors. No action is required.

Scenario 4

The issue in scenario 4 was resolved as follows: In this scenario, MRS in Exchange Online sets the value of the ArchiveDomain property to the on-premises domain. Therefore, users see the presence of an archive mailbox in Outlook, even though the archive mailbox is not enabled. This archive resembles the 'ghost archive' that's mentioned the 'Resolution' section for scenario 1. However, the archive still requires the Exchange administrator of the on-premises Exchange Server environment to run the script that's provided in the 'Resolution of Scenario 5' section. Microsoft deployed an update to resolve this scenario. Therefore, future offboarding will not be affected.

To determine whether you are affected when you perform an offboarding migration from Exchange Online, run the script that's provided in the 'Resolution of Scenario 5' section in scan mode.

Scenario 5

In this scenario, the value of the ArchiveDomain property is set to the on-premises domain. Therefore, Outlook can't locate and open the archive mailbox.

To resolve scenarios 4 and 5, Microsoft provides the following script to help change the necessary attributes automatically if you move your mailboxes from Exchange Online back to your on-premises Exchange Server environment. To run the script, follow these steps:

1. Start Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following script in Notepad:

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
#
# PLEASE NOTE:
# Microsoft Corporation (or based on where you live, one of its affiliates)
# licenses this supplement to you. You may use it with each validly licensed
# copy of Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools software (the "software").
# You may not use the supplement if you do not have a license for the software.
# The license terms for the software apply to your use of this supplement.
# Microsoft may provide support services for the supplement as described at
# http://www.support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx.
#
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# PowerShell Source Code
#
param([Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
[string]$TenantCloudDomain,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
[string]$Domain,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
[Switch]$Fix,
[Parameter(Mandatory = $false)]
[Switch]$FindAllUsersInForest
)
function GetNameFromDN([string]$dn)
{
if ($dn.Length -eq 0) { return $null; }
return ($dn -split ",")[0].Replace("CN=", "")
}
Import-Module ActiveDirectory
If ($TenantCloudDomain.Length -eq 0) {
$ldapQuery = "(&(objectClass=user)(msExchArchiveAddress=*))"
} else {
$ldapQuery = "(&(objectClass=user)(msExchArchiveAddress=*)(!(&(msExchArchiveGuid=*)(!(msExchArchiveDatabaseLink=*))(msExchArchiveAddress=$TenantCloudDomain))))"
}
if ($Domain.Length -eq 0) {
# default domain to computer's domain
$computer = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_ComputerSystem
$Domain = $computer.Domain
}
if ($FindAllUsersInForest -and $Fix) {
throw "You cannot specify -FindAllUsersInForest when running in -Fix mode, only one domain can be cleaned up at a time."
}
Write-Host "Looking for objects to clean up in ${Domain}: ${ldapQuery}"
$propertiesToLoad = @("msExchMailboxGuid","homeMDB","msExchArchiveGuid","msExchArchiveDatabaseLink","msExchArchiveAddress")
$tsStart = [DateTime](Get-Date)
if ($FindAllUsersInForest) {
$m = Get-ADObject -Server "${Domain}:3268" -SearchBase "" -LDAPFilter $ldapQuery -ResultSetSize $null -Properties $propertiesToLoad
} else {
$m = Get-ADObject -Server $Domain -LDAPFilter $ldapQuery -ResultSetSize $null -Properties $propertiesToLoad
}
$elapsed = [DateTime](Get-Date) - $tsStart
if ($m -eq $null) {
Write-Host "No objects need to be cleaned up."
return
}
$cleanedCount = 0
$failedCount = 0
$filename = $("~\ArchiveDomainCleanup_{0:yyyymmdd_HHmmss}.csv" -f (Get-Date))
# Run cleanup and output data to CSV file
Write-Host "Writing output to $filename..."
try {
$m | %{
$success = $true
if ($Fix) {
$prevError = $error[0]
Set-ADObject -Identity $_ -Server $Domain -Clear "msExchArchiveAddress"
if ($error[0] -ne $prevError) {
$success = $false
Write-Host "x" -NoNewLine
} else {
Write-Host "." -NoNewLine
}
}
if ($success) {
$cleanedCount++
# object was cleaned up successfully, let's append it to output CSV.
$mm = $_ | Select ObjectGuid,DistinguishedName
# Morph guid values from binary blob to proper guid
$mbxGuid = [Guid]$_.msExchMailboxGuid
if ($_.msExchArchiveGuid -ne $null) {
$archiveGuid = [Guid]$_.msExchArchiveGuid
} else {
$archiveGuid = $null
}
Add-Member -InputObject $mm -MemberType NoteProperty -Name CleanedArchiveDomain -Value $($_.msExchArchiveAddress)
Add-Member -InputObject $mm -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ExchangeGuid -Value $mbxGuid
Add-Member -InputObject $mm -MemberType NoteProperty -Name Database -Value $(GetNameFromDN $_.homeMDB)
Add-Member -InputObject $mm -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ArchiveGuid -Value $archiveGuid
Add-Member -InputObject $mm -MemberType NoteProperty -Name ArchiveDatabase -Value $(GetNameFromDN $_.msExchArchiveDatabaseLink)
$mm
} else {
$failedCount++
}
} | Export-CSV $filename -NoTypeInformatio
}
finally {
if ($Fix) {
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Cleaned up $cleanedCount recipients."
if ($failedCount -gt 0) {
Write-Warning "Failed to update $failedCount recipients."
}
} else {
Write-Host "Discovered $cleanedCount recipients."
}
}

1. On the File menu, click Save.
2. In the Save As Type box, click All Files (.).
3. In the File name box, typeCleanup-ArchiveDomain.ps1, and then click Save.
4. Locate the directory in which you saved the Cleanup-ArchiveDomain.ps1 file, and then run the script together with the following parameters:

Cleanup-ArchiveDomain.ps1 [-TenantCloudDomain serviceDomain] [-Domain domain] [-Fix] [-FindAllUsersInForest]

More information

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