How to Check Mailbox Corruption in Exchange 2013/10/07 Server

How to Check Mailbox Corruption in Exchange 2013/10/07 Server

Microsoft Exchange Server is used to store all Emails, Contacts, Notes, Journals and other user details in EDB format. However, Exchange Server is vulnerable to corruption and other issues so users sometimes need to repair the corrupted files. But, the first step is to identify whether or not there is any corruption in the Mailbox. 

If users find the problem in EDB Files of Exchange Server, they need only check the suspicious files. However, Corruption in either the Public Folder Database of Exchange 2007 or Mailbox Database of Exchange 2013/10 can be severe or minor and most of them can be settled by running commands. So, in this write-up, you will find the method to check Mailbox corruption in Exchange 2013/10/07 Server by using various PowerShell commands and also repair them.

How to Detect Mailbox Corruption in Exchange Mailbox?

The Exchange Server Mailbox or EDB files corruption can occur because of logical and physical issues that affect the entire data. So, you have to check the corrupted file and find out the reasons behind the corruption. After that, you can easily Repair Exchange Database. First, let’s talk about the process to check Mailbox Corruption in Exchange Server.

IsInteg to Detect and Repair Corruption in Exchange 2007 Server

Functionalities to check and repair the errors are provided by IsInteg Tool. It can be called as a repair utility that handles the Exchange Database. It repairs logical inconsistencies at the application level in Exchange 2007. IsInteg was replaced by New-MailboxRepairRequest in Exchange 2010/13. Exchange Mailbox Database must be dismounted before performing this. The two-modes offered by IsInteg are:

1. Check Only: Additional switches are not needed to run IsInteg in this mode. It is also called as the Default mode.
2. Check and Fix: It detects and repair errors by giving -fix switch.

Note: Check Only mode is recommended before performing Check and fix mode

Commands to Detect And Repair Mailbox Corruption in Exchange 2013/10 Server:

• Use the Shell to check and repair Corruption in a single Mailbox

This command will detect Mailbox Corruption in Exchange for a single user.

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox deepak@contoso.com -CorruptionType FolderView

• Use the Shell to check and repair Corruption in Set of Mailboxes

This command checks all types of corruption in Mailboxes that have CustomAttribute4 and repair them.

Get-Mailbox -Filter {CustomAttribute4 -like "Repair Required"} | New-MailboxRepairRequest -CorruptionType SearchFolder,AggregateCounts,ProvisionedFolder,FolderView

• Use the Shell to find Corruption for a Mailbox

This command first detects and then give a report on corruption issues in provisioned folders that are not pointing to the parent folder in a proper manner. It also detects search folder issues in user’s Mailbox.

New-MailboxRepairRequest -Mailbox kyle -CorruptionType ProvisionedFolder,SearchFolder –DetectOnly

Note: This command is not capable of repairing the Exchange Database. To repair all types of corruption in User’s Mailbox, use the command:

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

In any situation, when users are unable to see the corruption in any Mailbox, then they can go to the EVENTLOG Application to check Exchange Mailbox for corruption and find out the exact reasons behind that corruption. It also shows the recovery status. Like this...

Process to Recover Mailbox in Exchange 13/10/07 Server

Once you have checked the corrupted EDB files and know the reasons behind corruption. Then, you can perform the recovery process. In order to repair damaged EDB file, you can use Eseutil /R Recovery mode. It is capable of doing hard recovery and soft recovery. A hard recovery process occurs after repairing a database from an online backup and soft recovery happens when the database is remounted after the unpredicted stop or repairing database from an offline backup file.

Automated Solution to Repair Corruption In Exchange Database

To minimize the efforts, you can use SysTools Exchange Recovery Tool. It is capable to repair Exchange Mailbox of any version. Level of corruption doesn't limit its functionality. It also supports to recover offline or dismounted EDB files.

Final Thoughts!

In this article, we have come across the issues of MS Exchange Server database corruption and the ways to check Mailbox corruption in Exchange Server. In addition to it, the entire blog serves the users with various commands to repair corrupted files of Exchange Database using PowerShell Commands. Afterward, the procedure to Recover Exchange EDB files is discussed.