Public Folder Deletion/Removal and Replication

Hi All
Overview:
I have a single DAG with 3 Members with all roles on each server, each has a Public Folder and is replicated, ie; PF1, PF2 & PF3
the edb on PF1 has grown very large compared to the other 2 almost out of freespace (whitespace issue i think), so I plan to remove it whilst leaving PF2 & PF3 intact, then i need to re-replicate to an newly created PF1 so i'm back
to having all 3 servers replicating the public folder DB
I plan to point everyone to PF2 as they are currently split between PF1 & PF2 along with the DBs.
Can someone guide me through the process, I've looked at Removing public folders but nothing gives me a good guide in my scenario ?
Thanks

Hi,
Based on my understanding, you want to remove PF1, however you didn't want to interrupt the clients from accessing public folders, so you would like these users to access PF2. If I misunderstood your concern, please let me know.
Before you delete PF1, please specify PF2 for mailbox databases on the Mailbox server where this PF1 reside. After you recreate a new PF and configure Public Folder Replication, you can specify this new PF for mailbox databases to get it back when all data
have been replicated.
Here is an article about how to change the default Public Folder Database for a Mailbox Database for your reference.
Change the Default Public Folder Database for a Mailbox Database
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb629522(v=exchg.141).aspx
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Belinda
Belinda Ma
TechNet Community Support

Similar Messages

Public Folder migration (2010 - 2010) replication issues

Hi all,
I'm currently migrating from one exchange 2010 SP2, to another exchange 2010 SP2 server, and all is complete apart from damn public folders.
Via EMS I ran
.\AddRelicaToPFRecursive.sp1 -TopPublicFolder "\" -ServerToAdd "NewEXC10"
And I left exchange a day or so to chug along through the 1GB of public folders. I went to check the replication by running
Get-PublicFolder -Recurse | fl Name, Replicas
And I get:
Name: IPM_SUBTREE
Replicas: <>
Name: All Public Folders
Replicas: <Old PFDB. New PFDB>
Name: Meeting rooms
Replicas: <Old PFDB>
Name: Company Contacts
Replicas: <Old PFDB>
and this goes on for every sub folder under the public folders. I also tried
Get-PublicFolderStatistics -Server "OLDEXCH10"
Get-PublicFolderStatistics -Server "NEWEXCH10"
So I could get the item counts, in case everything had copied over but is not showing folder structure.I get
OLDEXC10
Name ItemCount
All Public Folders 0
Meeting Rooms 137
Company Contacts 43
NEWEXC10
Name ItemCount
All Public Folders 0
/o=domain/cm=addres...0
I've not gotten any errors in the event log, and attempted to initate the replication again, but with the same results. Can any one please help?
Many thanks,

Hi,
To troubleshoot this issue more efficiently, I need to clarify one thing.
Did you delete an Exchange 2003 server before?
If you had uninstalled the legacy Exchange server, please check if there is an empty Servers container under the administrative group container. If it is there, please remove the empty servers container to check the result.
If you didn't remove Exchange 2003 server in your organization, you can check the following suggestions.
Please check if the mail flow between two servers was working fine.
From the output of ruing the Get-PublicFolder -Recurse | fl Name, Replicas cmdlet, I noticed that the public folder Meeting rooms and Company Contacts didn't have replicas on the New PFDB. You can add the New PFDB to the replica list via Public Folder Management
Console.
After that, please set the public folder replication schedule to Always Run.
Did you update the public folder content using the Update-PublicFolder cmdlet? If not, please run this command to check the result.
If the issue persists, please increase the Diagnostic Logging Level for MSExchangeIS\9001 Public to Expert to check if there is any related errors to narrow down the issue.
Best regards,
Belinda
Belinda Ma
TechNet Community Support

Public Folder Database Removal

Hello,
I am working in a Exchange 2010/2013 co-existence environment.
All mailboxes have been moved to Exchange 2013.
Public folders remain on Exchange 2010 for the moment.
There are 4 Public folder databases, all identical in terms of replicas:
PFDB1 - MBX01
PFDB2- MBX02
PFDB3 - MBX03
PFDB4 - MBX04
Circumstances beyond my control may mean that I need to take the MBX03 and MBX04 servers out of the production environment before I have migrated the public folder hierarchy across to 2013.
What is the recommended method for removing the public folder databases on these two servers?
Previous experience tells me that removing a database containing any replicas will fail. How can this be mitigated while keeping the PF structure in tact on PFDB1 and PFDB2 and thus serving the client mailboxes?
Regards
Matt

Hi,
To remove a public folder databae, you can look at the following article.
Remove Public Folder Databases
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dd876883(v=exchg.141).aspx
Before you delete public folder database, please dismount public folder databases temporarily and make sure Exchange 2013 users can access public folders normally.
Best regards,
Belinda Ma
TechNet Community Support

HT1451 I moved my entire itunes file folder to a public folder by mistake and now I'm having trouble moving it back with all of my playlists in tact.

I tried to create a situation where my daughter and I could share our itunes libraries on the same computer. I was following all of the steps but inadvertently moved the entire itunes folder from to the public one instead of just moving the media. I tried to cancel the operation but it failed. Now I can't seem to move it back to it original place. All of my playlists are gone and everything is in iCloud. Is there a way to recover this? This is so frustrating. I have windows running vista. Please help!

Yes, provided all the media is inside the iTunes Media folder, which is in turn inside the main iTunes folder (which is the standard arrangement) you should be able to move the iTunes folder from <User's Music> to any other path and shift-start-Tunes (option-start-iTunes on a Mac) to reconnect to it.
If the media folder has split out to another drive in the past, or media is stored outside of the iTunes Media folder, then things get a bit more complicated. I can go into details should it be necessary.
tt2

Exchange 2003 to 2010 migration move public folder

Hello.
I'm on the road to Exchange 2010 migration and stuck at on question
All tutorial says then you want to replicate system PF and Public Folders you need to add PF 2010 in ESM and set replication to Urgent,that's all
But then i view my system PF replication on Exchange 2010 i see checkbox Use public folder is checked and replication shedule on Exchange 2010 is set to Never run(greyed out)
Is this right? Or i need to uncheck it and then shedule is set to Always run automaticly?
Do i need to do it for all PF? (system and non-system)?

Hi stevemaystr,
Don’t worry about the replication of PF, we can use the MoveAllReplicas.ps1 and ReplaceReplicaOnPFRecursive.ps1 script to move all public folder and all replicas to another database, please refer to:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb331970(v=exchg.141).aspx
Additional, I find an similar thread about Migrate PF from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010, for your reference:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/2dc27efa-d19c-4929-a2f1-54523c847d2a/moving-public-folders-from-exchange-2003-to-2010?forum=exchange2010
Best Regards,
Allen Wang

How to Remove Public Folder Replicas?

I am unable to remove the Public Folder Database . Every time I try, I get the error:
   The public folder database specified contains folder replicas.
   Before deleting the public folder database, remove the folders
   or move the replicas to another public folder database.
The public folder database has no Public Folders in it - it is completely empty. I've set replication to "Never" but I still get this error. The UI does not expose the replica list and the set-PublicFolder command does not
have a provision for having an empty parameter for the -Replicas switch.
I can't just simply delete the database itself since then the Exchange Uninstall will fail the pre-checks and won't uninstall and I need the roles removed, etc. from the registry.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

had the same issue with this script as kenaska. Use the Microsoft suggested commands on this page to remove both user and system public folders, and then you can remove the database. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb201664%28v=exchg.140%29.aspx
User Public Folders:
Get-PublicFolder -Server <server containing the public folder database> "\" -Recurse -ResultSize:Unlimited | Remove-PublicFolder -Server <server containing the public folder database> -Recurse -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue
System Public Folders:
Get-PublicFolder -Server <server containing the public folder database> "\Non_Ipm_Subtree" -Recurse -ResultSize:Unlimited | Remove-PublicFolder -Server <server containing the public folder database> -Recurse -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue
This worked to resolve my issue.
---------------- STOP --------------------
DO NOT TRY THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THIS
http://blogs.technet.com/b/bill_long/archive/2011/06/11/do-not-use-remove-publicfolder-to-remove-a-public-folder-database.aspX
AND FULLY UNDERSTOOD THE CONSEQUENCES.
Sharique 'W@rbuG' Ahmed. 2 b or not 2 b

Public folder content disapear immediately after starting replication during migration from exchange 2003

Hello,
I'm in the middle of exchange 2003 to 2010 migration. The migration of the user mailboxes is completed with no problems. Today I try to start the replication of the public folders (~ 160 GB). I used the following instructions (http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000426.htm)
to set the replication for all folders. After a short time the first users calls, they were missing the objects in the public folder hierarchie. The routing group connector between the to servers lists a lot of wating mails but nothing really happens. I try
to revert the process by deleting the replications server settings bu everything is very slow and the objects in the public folder hierarchie are still missing.
Any suggestions?

Hmm sounds like you might have replicated things backwards if the folders are missing.
Did you happen to make a backup just prior to starting the replication?
Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline Exchange Mailbox and Public Folder EDB's and Live Exchange Servers or Import/Migrate direct from Offline EDB to Any Production Exchange Server, even cross version i.e. 2003 -->
2007 --> 2010 --> 2013 with Lucid8's
DigiScope

Delete Public Folder Database

I am on Exchange 2010 SP3, and I am at the point where I am getting rid of using Public Folders. All folders have since been converted to room mailboxes, or deleted since they were unused. The OAB is no longer being distributed through pubic folders.
I was going to follow the steps here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876883(v=exchg.141).aspx
However, I am aware of the problem with the Internet Newsgroup
public folder that can't be deleted.
So I read where you have to use ADSI to delete the database instead if you can't delete the public folder database cause of that specific public folder. So what are the CORRECT steps/order to decommission your public folders when you have the dreaded
Internet Newsgroups public folder you can't delete?

OK, I went to remove the public folder database today. But it wouldn't delete because of this issue I think.
It's the last public folder database in my enterprise, and the only folder left is the stupid Internet Newsgroup folder I can't delete.
The error is:
Microsoft Exchange Error
The public folder database 'DBPublicFolders' cannot be deleted.
DBPublicFolders
Failed
Error:
The public folder database "DBPublicFolders" contains folder replicas. Before deleting the public folder database, remove the folders or move the replicas to another public folder database. For detailed instructions about how to remove a public folder
database, see
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=81409&clcid=0x409.
OK
If I go the ADSI method, what should I do before hand? dismount the database? remove it's association with all databases?

Exchange 2013 - Public Folder Mailbox and Single Item Recovery

Hello,
I recently had a request to recover some messages that an ex-employee deleted from the "recover deleted items" folder in their public folder. Since this resides on a public folder mailbox and it does have the option for
"Single Item Recovery" to be enabled on the box (which I enabled not knowing if this really works or not), is there a way I can still recovery these items or do I have to go to a backup to obtain those messages. Since ExFolders does not work that
is not an option. I've seen commands to restore a public folder that was deleted but not items that were deleted directly from a public folder. I checked using MFCMAPI and I do see the dumper root and the public folder dumpster for each folder but it
looks to be only the "deletions" folder and don't see anything similar to a "purges" type folder. Any ideas or am I stuck recovering from backup? Thanks in advance!

So I think you are stuck and will need to restore the EDB to a Recovery Database to restore the items because when the end user purged the items from the "Recover Deleted Items" it removes them from the Recoverable Items/Deletions folder.
Check out this article
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/08/23/recovering-public-folder-information-in-exchange-2013.aspx
I have not played with the recoverable items settings on the 2013 public folder enabled mailbox EDB but you might try checking out Litigation or In Place Hold to use as a safety mechanism moving forward. That said this will also increase the
DB size so consider all the options before implementing
Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline Exchange Mailbox and Public Folder EDB's and Live Exchange Servers or Import/Migrate direct from Offline EDB to Any Production Exchange Server, even cross version i.e. 2003 -->
2007 --> 2010 --> 2013 with Lucid8's
DigiScope

Removing Public Folder Replicas

Good Day ,
I did migration from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010 to preparing uninstall exchange 2003 I try to Removing Public Folder Replicas I followed the procedure from the interface Exchange2003 Public Folder to remove replication but nothing happen I saw replication
still existe . can you help me
Regards
e

Hi,
Do you check the following article?
http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000426.htm
Note: Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. The sites are not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot
make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above link.
This article may help you to remove the public folder replica. Please follow this article to check result.
Hope this is helpful to you.
Best regards,
Belinda Ma
TechNet Community Support

How to regain access to public folder items

Hi All,
We have a few public folder items (mainly calendars) for which i (the admin) have no(or limited) access to.
In outlook 2010 if i go to the properties of the public calendar i can only see an entry for Administrators for which has the access of only "Author"
If i log into the exchange server powerscript shell and try and run
Get-PublicFolderClientPermission -Identity \"<Item name>"
I get the following error:
No existing 'PublicFolderEntry' matches the following Identity: '\<Item name>'. Make sure that you specif
ied the correct 'PublicFolderEntry' Identity and that you have the necessary permissions to view 'PublicFolderEntry'.
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (0:Int32) [Get-PublicFolderClientPermission], MapiObjectNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : C8510C4,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.MapiTasks.GetPublicFolderClientPermission
These are items have had existed in exchange since before it started and from Exchange 2003 to now Exchange 2010.
Is there a way i can force the Administrator to have Owner rights on these items again?
Thanks

Ok... for all those other unfortunate souls out there who have no answer... here's the deal... The "Failed to Modify MAPI.NET Table" error is due to a problem with your DACL (permissions) table on the public folder(s). But, Exchange 2010 doesn't provide
any utilities to correct this! exFolders replaces most PVDavAdmin functions but is does not have the "Fix DACL" option built in.
After all my research and troubleshooting I discovered that the DACL issue was because I had entered explict permissions for the built-in Administrators group. This was resulting in the following error in event viewer: "The mailbox '' contains a folder <NAME
OF MY PUBLIC FOLDER> with a security descriptor that violates the canonical format."
Since I could not remove the existing public folders OR modify their permissions, but could still read their content, I copied all the content over to my mailbox. I then wanted to start completely fresh and created a new public folder store following the
below steps:
1. Dismount public folder database
2. Move public folder database file and log (as a backup, not going to reuse it though)
3. Mount public folder database (creates a new blank public folder database)
*** NOTE: I could have probably just continued with the new blank public folder database, but I wanted to clear out all the old stuff and be sure it was all new and clean. So I continued through the following steps.
4. Delete public folder database
5. Delete database file and log files
6. Opened ADSIEdit and deleted the existing "Folder Hierarchies" object from this location: Configuration\Services\Microsoft Exchange\<organization name>\Administrative groups
*** NOTE: The next two steps are optional, as Exchange will do them for you when you create a new public folder database. BUT, exchange does NOT correctly assign the msExchPublicFolderTreeContainer class to the Folder Hierarchies object! It just makes it a
container. So I opted to manually create it to force it to use the right class
7. Recreated the "Folder Hierarchies" object in the same location (class is msExchPublicFolderTreeContainer)
8. Create "Public Folders" object under "Folder Hierarchies" (class is msExchPFTree and attribute msExchPFTreeType MUST be set to 1)
9. Went back to EMC, Organization Configuration, Mailbox, Database Management, and right clicked to create a new public folder database.
10. Restart Information Store Service
Once I had done all that I opened up outlook and created a new public folder. I then highlighted all the items in my mailbox that I had copied out of the original folder and copied them into this new public folder. As long as I do not add public folder permissions
for the built-in Administrators group, then I am able to manage public folder permissions without any errors. I haven't tested to see if the same error occurs for other built-in security groups.

Public Folder Item Age Limits

Hello,
I am looking for information on how to configure item retention for public folders/public folder mailboxes in Exchange 2013.
I have migrated the public folder hierarchy successfully from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013.
The public folder item retention used to be managed on a per folder basis using the "(LocalReplicaAgeLimit) Age limit for replicas days" parameter in Exchange 2010, and I found this worked quite well in removing items that had passed the configured
expiry threshold.
The folders that needed a different age limit setting were exempted from inheriting the public folder database defaults, and granted a specific value.
These settings have not been carried over during the migration however, so now all public folders are inheriting the organization defaults for retention - which is $null.
Now that the public folder hierarchy is on Exchange 2013 and is mailbox based, what is the recommended method for granular public folder item retention.
I see that each folder the following settings can be configured Limits > Age Limits: Age limit for folder content (days) which looks like the setting I would need to configure, however, the technet text surrounding this parameter states:
Cmdlet: Set-PublicFolder
Parameter: AgeLimit
The AgeLimit parameter
specifies the overall age limit on the folder. Replicas of this public folder are automatically deleted when the age limit is exceeded.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998596(v=exchg.150).aspx
Does this mean the folder gets deleted once the limit has been reached - or just the items within?
Now that public folders are mailbox based, what effect (if any) do retention tags/policies have on public folder mailboxes
- can item retention be managed this way?
Thanks
Matt

Hi Matt,
The AgeLimit parameter in Set-PublicFolder cmdlet is based on folder level.
The AgeLimit parameter in Set-Mailbox cmdlet is based on mailbox level.
For more information on how to set retention policy for public folder, please refer following article:
Limits for public folders
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn594582(v=exchg.150).aspx
Thanks
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TechNet Community Support

Getting default Public Folder names again

I just installed Leopard and updated to 10.5.4. I set up two users both as Admins. When I set up File Sharing, both user's public folders, were already installed, and were named "[username]'s Public Folder". This was great as they both showed up with their different respective names when accessed.
I then changed the User Names of both Admin accounts. The second user Admin account automatically changed the Public Folder's name (in the file sharing section), to match the new User Name but the first Admin account did not, retaining the original User Name I had given the main Admin account. Trying in vain to get it to change to match, (you can't rename the public folder there), I removed it from the shared folder field and added it back. While successful, it now only has the name "Public" rather than "[username]'s Public Folder".
Can anyone help me get the original OS default name back again?

I see. as I said I don't know how to do it properly but you can try the follwoing (admittedly clumsy) workaround.
Rename your public folder. It's not quite easy to do actually because that folder is protected by a deny delete ACL and you won't be able to rename it without some extra work.
First run the following command in terminal ( from the same account as that Public folder) to remove the ACL.
chmod -N ~/Public
You can now rename it as you like. Let's say you call it
Joe's Public folder
(or whatever). You can put the deny delete ACL back if you want to protect that folder from accidental deletion as it was by default. to do that run the following terminal command
chmod +a "everyone deny delete" ~/"Joe's Public folder"
keep the quotes in the command. I'm not sure if there is any downside to doing this. It might be that the name of the Public folder is hard coded somewhere and renaming it will have some unintended consequences. I tested it on one of my accounts and everything seems to work fine there but something might still come up later. If it does you can always rename the folder back to Public.

Decommissioning Exchange 2010 Public Folder servers

I have 4 Exchange 2010 SP3 RU6 Public Folder servers. I need to get rid of 2 of them so I can re-use the hardware. The 2 I need to get rid of are replication partners (one replicates to the other) and only have about 5GB of PF data. I want to move the data
to the other 2 Public Folder servers (they are replication partners with each other). Those 2 servers have about 200GB of PF data. Do I just run .\MoveAllReplicas.ps1 -Server OldServer -NewServer NewServer on 1 server since it has the same data as the other
one? I am just trying to figure out how to get the data from the 2 "old" PF servers (it is the same data since 1 replicates to the other) to the 2 newer ones which are the main PF servers (again, one replicates to the other). Also, this command won't
erase what is already on the newer servers, right? I assume it will just add to the existing.
Jason
HDL

Hi,
You need to replicate public folder firstly, after you make sure the public folder replication is completed, you can use the .\MoveAllReplicas.ps1 to move all replicas to the server that you want to keep.
Replicating public folders won't remove the existing public folders.
You will have to run .\MoveAllReplicas.ps1 -Server OldServer -NewServer NewServer command on both server, this command actually remove the public folder replicas on the old Exchange server. If you don't remove public folders replicas on the old
server, you won't remove pulic folder database successfully.
Best regards,
Belinda Ma
TechNet Community Support

How does the EDB handle deleted items and why am I only able to recover some and not all previously deleted emails?

Hello,
I have been unable to locate information regarding how the EDB handles deleted files. I am able to recover deleted emails from the EDB; however, there are numerous emails that I know have been deleted, that were not recovered during the recovery process.
Is this because the EDB dumps deleted emails once it reaches a certain amount of entries? Or is it more likely the deleted items are corrupted and thus not recoverable? Thank you for your time and I look forward to your responses. The
product in question is Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.

Great information from the other posters and one other possible explanation is if the users did a HARD DELETE. More information on this below
Pre-Exchange 2010 Dumpster 1.0 worked as follows;
1. When a user does a normal delete of an item via Outlook or OWA it gets sent to your deleted items folder
2. If the user then empties deleted items folder those items are then marked with the ptagDeletedOnFlag attribute which in essence hides them from the view of the user
3. At this point the user can use the Recover Deleted Items function in Outlook to recover those items as long as the items were NOT purged using the Recover Deleted Items option OR the items have not passed still the deleted item retention period.
NOTE: Every day there is a nightly maintenance process that in short looks through the DB and examines items that have been deleted. Items that have met or exceeded the deleted item retention period are purged from the system and are
completely non-recoverable. More about this at the end of my post.
4. However if the end user were to delete an item from the Inbox or another folder in Outlook by using Shift + Delete aka a Hard Deletion the item is left in its orignal location and gets marked with the ptagDeletedOnFlag attribute which again just
hides it from view.
5. By default you can only use the Recover Deleted Items option on the Delted Items folder. Howeve you can make it so that you can recover hard Deleted items from other folders. More on that here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/246153
5. The problem with this method though IMO is that you have to know where to look and that can be rather time consuming.
6. If you want a more elegant method to resolve this and are open to using 3rd party utilities check out Lucid8's DigiScope.
http://www.lucid8.com/product/digiscope.asp which will allow you to open any offline copy of the DB from a forensic point of view and to solve your specific issue you can either turn on a filter to ONLY
show hard deleted items OR you can search the entire store and all mailboxes for just deleted items and can then view or export them to PST or MSG format. You can download the product and obtain a 30 day demo license which will allow you to find any
hard deleted items, however to view them or export your would need to purchase a license.
NOTE: When a database is backed up or copied it is an "Offline" database and then its offline the data retention period is not an issue because the nightly online maintenance process can only act on a database that is mounted on an
Exchange server. So for this reason if you want to recover the most data possible use offline copies/backups of the DB with a 3rd party utility like DigiScope
NOTE 2: Exchange 2010 and 2013 use Dumpster 2.0 which is an entirely different beast and I will not go into that in this post since its nearly 1AM however DigiScope can expose that information as well
Search, Recover, & Extract Mailboxes, Folders, & Email Items from Offline Exchange Mailbox and Public Folder EDB's and Live Exchange Servers or Import/Migrate direct from Offline EDB to Any Production Exchange Server, even cross version i.e. 2003
--> 2007 --> 2010 --> 2013 with Lucid8's
DigiScope

Public Folder Deletion/Removal and Replication

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