Exchange mailbox not deleting email

I have a user that when looking at the exchange 2007 management gui it says is mailbox size is 1.2gb. But, when looking at the properties of his account in outlook is shows it only at a little over 600mb in the server and local tab.

Also, we have quotas setup to email users when they approach the quota and the email from exchange to this user says "storage quota is 1.5gb and your current mailbox size is 619mb".

So he's no where near the limit and still exchange thinks he at 1.2gb.

Any thoughts? Can I use the mfcmaopi tool to clean this up.

Looks like maybe old deleted email is not getting deleted. So I set the deleted retention for him to 0 days, hopping this would clear out the stuck email if there.
rdefinoAsked:
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imkotteesSenior Messaging EngineerCommented:
check in the outlook online mode.
piattndCommented:
Check your mailbox retention settings for that mailbox store.  Mailbox retention means a user deletes the mailbox and it no longer shows on their "mailbox size" from within outlook, but it will stay in the user's exchange mailbox.  This allows for the recover deleted items to function properly.

If an item was deleted on day 1 and you had retention settings set to keep deleted items for 14 days, it wouldn't be until day 15 that the item(s) deleted on day 1 were actually purged and the space recovered/cleared in the database.
Will SzymkowskiSenior Solution ArchitectCommented:
Does this happen with other users in your environment? It could possibly be a corrupted OST which is not updating content properly. Try recreating the OST or even the profile and see if you get the same results.

Will.
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rdefinoAuthor Commented:
So I found the issue. Using mfcmaopi I found over 7000 emails in the deletions folder. But it didn't show in outlook. I delete them and all is fine.

thanks
piattndCommented:
What you describe is likely the deletion retention setting, as I explained.  See this link:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125266(v=exchg.80).aspx

See the following URL that explains the whole process from deleted items, to deletions, to purge:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2786067

Changing your retention policy to a shorter duration should be your action should you need those items to purge sooner and recover that disk space within the database for later use.
rdefinoAuthor Commented:
I set the retention to 0 days but that didn't remove them, and these emails were from 2yrs ago.


Our normal retention is 14days for all users.
piattndCommented:
It doesn't matter when the emails were from, it matters when they were deleted.  Once an item passes the retention period and the maintenance interval runs, it will handle the cleanup on the message.

Regardless, whether you clear the messages yourself or let the exchange system handle the cleanup via retention, the same end result is achieved.  Just wanted to make sure you understood the reason the items ended up there and stayed there.
piattndCommented:
This link describes the cleanup service specific to Exchange 2007 (2003 was named differently):

http://briandagan.com/how-to-setting-up-message-retention-policies

Verify that the Messaging Records Management feature of the server is enabled & scheduled

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rdefinoAuthor Commented:
Great, thank you. This is great info.
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