Hi folks,I have a public folder on Exchange 2003 SP2 where Spam is automatically placed by GFI.Of course, this folder increases exponentially in size and is difficult at best to keep up with.So, I setup limits on the folder to delete all messages older than 15 days.I did this in Exchange System Manager under the following 2 places:1.My Administrative Group - Folders - Public Folders - Spam - Properties of Spam - Limits.I set Age limit for replicas (days): to 15.Use public store defaults is not checked.2.My Administrative Group - Servers - My Server - My Storage Group - Public Folder Store - Public Folder Instances - Spam - Replica Properties - I set Age limit of of this folder on this public store (days) to 15.Effective age limit of this folder on this public store (days) is 15.3.I verified it at My Administrative Group - Servers - My Server - My Storage Group - Public Folder Store - Public Folders - Properties of Spam - Limits and it is 15.When I go to the Public Folder Instances folder and look at the list.It has a column labeled Removed Older Than it says 12/25/2008 3:00 AM but the folder goes back to 12/24/2008 3:32 PM.Any ideas on how I can fix this?Thanks so much!Mike

Issue description: Age limit doesnt work correctly for public folder First, please review the order for overriding on public folder age limits in this article. Your step 2 will override other steps (Its on replica level), so you just need to use step 2 on all replicas of Spam folder if the number of replica isnt too much. The step 1 and 3 are actually the setting on the same level So, please set the limits properly at first. Now, go back to the question. Your issue is that the settings should remove all mails older than 15 days (12/25/2008 3:00AM), but the actual removed mails are older than 12/24/2008 3:32PM, right? Troubleshooting: 1. How many public stores have the replica of Spam folder? 2. Did you set step 3 on all replicas of Spam folder? 3. The age of item is determined first by its "Last modified date" attribute and then the "creation date" attribute. So, please MFCMAPI to check the "Last modified date" of unremoved items a. Launch MFCMAPI on your PC b. Session menu->choose Logon and Display Store Table->choose your mail profile in jumped window c. On the top-pane, double-click public folder and go to next window d. Expand Public Root container->IPM_SUBTREE->find Spam folder and double-click it e. In the next windows, highlight unremoved items on the top-pane. Then, find PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME in the pane below and check it, see if its reached to 15 days at 1/10/2009 3:00AM

Thanks for the reply James... I did follow the referenced article (Article ID: 810870). Of course it only references that it is for Exchange 2000 and not 2003, but I used it anyway. I did not follow the steps for setting age limits on the entire Public Folder Store as I do not want any other folders affected. I did verify that the entire Public Folder Store does not have any limits.I want all email in the SPAM public folder older than 15 days to be deleted. Currently, it says that messages older than 15 are being deleted, but there are many, many messages older than that still in there. It does not look like anything is being deleted as a matter of fact.I do not have any additionalreplicas at all.I attempted the troubleshooting steps you outlined. I took a look at the oldest item in the public folder SPAM, dated 12/27/08 1:12PM. I MFCMAPI, thePR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME is08:12:21.742 PM 12/27/2008. Others appear also to have an older date than 15 days. Currently, anything older than 12/30/2008 7:00 PM should be wiped out.Thanks for your continued help!Mike

It seems that something on older items prevent them from deletion Does system policy exist for public store? If yes, please check the Age Limit in it Please try another test, create a TEST public folder, just use method in your step 2 to set the age limit to 1 day for this folder, and put messages into the folder, see if the issue persists, if not, move some un-removed messages from SPAM to TEST, see if the issue persists From this test, we will confirm if public store maintenance works normally, and if the cause is the message itself After spent more time to research, I found this article: ======= If any one of these properties is less than the limit set by the Mailbox Manager rules, then we will skip that message. PR_MESSAGE_DELIVERY_TIME PR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIME PR_LAST_MODIFICATION_TIME ======= Besides the properties above, please also check the PR_CREATION_TIME and PR_LOCAL_COMMIT_TIME properties

Thanks for the reply James, I will go over everything today or tomorrow. I appriate your help!Mike

So, in looking at thePR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIME there was an odd anomoly. A lot of messages had an entry of 08:16:33.000 PM 12/28/3609. Others that should have been eliminatedwere correct with a 12/28/2008. So, as per the article you attached, I changed the msExchMailboxManagerAgeLimit in adsi edit to 3 so it will only look at the delivery date. I then deleted all messages dated before 1/3/09 7PM, which eliminated all messages with the strange 3609. I will try the test public store as soon as I get time.Thanks again!Mike

Cool, let's find out the root causehere's a link that related to PR_CLIENT_SUBMIT_TIMEhttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/289122

So,the age limitdoes work in the test folder. Now, I'll try dragging messages in from the SPAM folder and see if it can delete them automatically. This is really strange! Thanks!

Great, so we confirmed that age limit function is working on the server. if the test message can be removed properly, we can say the root cause is those received messages

The test messages were removed just fine. I also moved a bunch of the old messages from the SPAM folder, waited a dayand they too were removed. I think I'm going to remove all age limitson the SPAM folder, wait a day orsoand set it back up. I'm just not sure what else to do.

I tried the above and the same thing is happing. No messages are being removed. I'm really not sure where I can go from here. Is there any other way I can automatically delete messages older than 14 days in a public folder?I'm completely at a loss now.Thanks for your continued support.Mike