TotalDeletedItemSize is growing and growing
Hi We are running an Exchange 2010 SP1 Server and are facing the following problem: Clients using Apple Mail (MacBooks) and IMAP4 have growing TotalDeletedItemSize. When using Get-MailboxStatistics they show the following as an example: ObjectClass : Mailbox StorageLimitStatus : NoChecking TotalDeletedItemSize : 2.782 GB (2,987,475,374 bytes) TotalItemSize : 909.2 MB (953,370,275 bytes) MailboxTableIdentifier : 370A-1F4F8E5 Database : Mailbox DB 01 Clients using Outlook 2010 or Mozilla Thunderbird (IMAP4) seem not to suffer from this problem. Their TotalItemSize and TotalDeletedItemSize are always very close. When connecting to one of the problem mailboxes with Outlook 2010 you cannot see any items under "Deleted Items". We suspected a problem with Retention Periods (set to 7 days and 15 so half the size of the defaults). But it seems not to be the case as the mailboxes exist since over a year and therefore should have been purged long before. At least we think so. Database maintenance is configured to run daily (ESE Scanning 24x7). We suspected the Dumpster to be the problem and therefore we tried the following cmmdlet: Search-Mailbox -Identity "alias@ourdomain.com" -SearchDumpsterOnly -DeleteContent Didn't work neither... :-( Only deleted 2 items which have been in the Deleted Items folder (visible) We believe that this may be an incompatibility between Apple Mail and Exchange IMAP4 Connector. Has anybody an idea how to get rid of the "Deleted Items" reported by Get-MailboxStatistics ? Regards, Oliver
January 31st, 2011 3:29pm

Hi, Here is the nice article with explain the dumpster for exchange 2010: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/09/25/452632.aspx, so check if you have deleted the mail for dumpster also, do let us know if this doesn't help.Ripu Daman Mina | MCSE 2003 & MCSA Messaging | MCC
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January 31st, 2011 6:12pm

Thanks for answering.... I have read the article and it is quiet interesting... But I don't understand your question " ... so check if you have deleted the mail for dumpster also..." Can I delete mails from the dumpster as well not only form the Deleted Items folder ? How is this going to work ? Regards, Oliver
January 31st, 2011 6:36pm

Hi, Please go-through the below steps and let me know if you have any concerns.... Dumpster 2.0 In Exchange 2010 the Dumpster has been redesigned to perform the following actions: - Ensure Exchange Dumpster Data moves with the mailbox during a mailbox move/migration action - Dumpster data is indexed and discoverable by search - Dumpster data must have a quota - Ability to prevent purging data from a users dumpster - Track editing of certain content (visioning in the dumpster) - Dumpster should be per mailbox not per folder. In Dumpster 2.0 it no longer flags emails users permanently delete with the ptagDeletedOnFlag attribute. Instead Dumpster 2.0 moves the emails to a new folder under the Non-IPM subtree in the users mailbox called Recoverable Items (note this section of the mailbox cannot be viewed by any client side mail clients, only using MAPI editing software such as MFCMAPI). Inside the Recoverable Items folder there are three sub-folders, each with a different purpose which will be explained below and you should give this a read as well http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee364755.aspx - Deletions - Purges - Versions The Deletions folder replaces the ptagDeletedOnFlag attribute, now emails are moved from their original location to the Deletions folder. If a user empties their Deleted Items folder or Shift Deletes an email, this is where it goes. In Dumpster 1.0 users were able to delete items from the Recover Deleted Items folder in result permanently removing them. This allowed users to hide incriminating emails which presented a problem with legality issues and court cases. Now in Dumpster 2.0 if a user deletes an email from the Deletions folder using the recover deleted items tool, it simply moves it to the Purges folder. Once in this folder it cannot be recovered with client side exchange software, however in the case its needed an administrator can use MAPI editing software to pull the email out. NOTE: If you want to remove the items from the PURGES folder you need to use the Managed Folder / Mailbox Assistant http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123958.aspx NOTE 2: You should also check out this link on understanding litigation hold http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee861123.aspx The Versions folder is used for whenever an item has changed, a copy-on-write is performed to preserve the original version of the item into this folder. This folder is not exposed to the end user. Copy on write will capture changes in the subject body, attachments, senders/recipients, and sent/received dates. Drafts are exempt from the copy-on-write. Lastly there is a process you can run through to Clean Up the Recoverable Items Folder http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678798.aspxRavi | MCSE Messaging - 2003. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
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January 31st, 2011 10:06pm

Hello Ravi OK I will have to study these documents about " Managed Folder / Mailbox Assistant " I mean basically what we want is simply "No retention" or anything else. If a mail has been SHift-Deleted or the "Deleted Items" folder has been emptied the email is simply GONE forever. We are a small company and its the users responsibility to not accidentally delete an email. We could have a retention period of 2 or 3 days but then emails must be purged ! This seems not to work correctly at the moment. Regards, Oliver
February 1st, 2011 4:57pm

Hi, I know there hasn't been anything here for a few weeks, but I am facing the same problem. Almost done with a 2003 -> 2010 migration and there are a few users that I moved over 2 months ago and one in particular has over 10 million items (totaling over 27GB) in the Recoverable Items folder (not in Deletions,purges, or version, just in the root). I've looked at it with MFCMAPI, but when I goto delete the items & sub folders it takes forever, I let it sit for 24 hours and had to finally dismount/mount the Database because outstanding RPC requests were climbing and performance was getting slow. It's down to about 10GB now and only 4.5 million items. I hate Mac's and our company permits users to use them so there is nothing I can do there. Something is wrong here though. I tried running.. Search-Mailbox -Identity username -SearchDumpsterOnly -DeleteContent It returns an exception: The object was bound to a wrong object type. ObjectClass = IPM.Appointment, Intended Type = Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.MessageItem. + CategoryInfo : ReadError: (0:Int32) [Search-Mailbox], WrongObjectTypeException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : E02C4A46,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Tasks.SearchMailbox Tried running Start-ManagedFolderAssistant, but I'm also getting events in the event viewer, MSExchangeMailboxAssistants 10025: Processing of the current batch of items in mailbox 'John Doe:7b002262-3033-4c9b-bbb6-3ec366e70c71:0beee9b3-cb69-46c8-a3cb-733a311e2e57:mail1 .domain.local' failed. The expiration action is 'PermanentlyDelete'. Source folder: ''. Target folder: ''. Source folder ID: ''. Target folder ID: ''. Exception: ''. Got about five users with this issue. Any help is appreciated.
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February 26th, 2011 7:41am

On Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:41:28 +0000, utahbmxer wrote: > > >Hi, I know there hasn't been anything here for a few weeks, but I am facing the same problem. Almost done with a 2003 -> 2010 migration and there are a few users that I moved over 2 months ago and one in particular has over 10 million items (totaling over 27GB) in the Recoverable Items folder (not in Deletions,purges, or version, just in the root). I've looked at it with MFCMAPI, but when I goto delete the items & sub folders it takes forever, I let it sit for 24 hours and had to finally dismount/mount the Database because outstanding RPC requests were climbing and performance was getting slow. It's down to about 10GB now and only 4.5 million items. What's the deleted item retention period for the database (or the mailbox)? Are you seeing events in the application log that tell you that deleted items are being removed? --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP --- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP
February 26th, 2011 7:35pm

10 days for Items and 5 for Mailboxes. I was using MFCMAPI to clean out items from the user's mailbox this morning. I ran Get-MailboxStatistics before I went to lunch... DeletedItemCount : 3348008 ItemCount : 2636 TotalDeletedItemSize : 8.054 GB (8,647,490,642 bytes) TotalItemSize : 18.88 MB (19,792,741 bytes) Came back from lunch and ran it again. DeletedItemCount : 3357294 ItemCount : 2411 TotalDeletedItemSize : 8.089 GB (8,684,997,235 bytes) TotalItemSize : 11.02 MB (11,553,181 bytes) It's a little crazy that 9286 items were created/moved into the Root Container/Recoverable Items folder within an hour. There is an incompatibility with Apple Mail and EXCH2010 IMAP. We're purchasing Office 2011 for our engineers who are on Macs but who knows when that will happen and I'm sure he uses Apple Mail at home, etc. We have around 500 users and there are only a few showing signs of this issue and all of them are on Mac. The message class appears to be IPM.Appointment for pretty much all of them. I lowered the RecoverableItemsQuota last week and now this popped up in the log at 1am (maintenance most likely) The mailbox for user@domain.com (GUID 7b002262-3033-4c9b-bbb6-3ec366e70c71) has exceeded the maximum Recoverable Items Quota. Items cannot be deleted from this mailbox. The mailbox owner should be notified about the condition of the mailbox as soon as possible. Please remove items from Recoverable Items or increase the Recoverable Items Quota to restore functionality. Another one that is popping up for this same user is: Processing of the current batch of items in mailbox 'John Doe:7b002262-3033-4c9b-bbb6-3ec366e70c71:0beee9b3-cb69-46c8-a3cb-733a311e2e57:mail1.domain.local' failed. The expiration action is 'PermanentlyDelete'. Source folder: ''. Target folder: ''. Source folder ID: ''. Target folder ID: ''. Exception: ''. Maybe I'll turn up the logging for the Managed Folder Assistant and manually start it again to see if anything else comes up.
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March 3rd, 2011 12:55am

Same issue in our organization. 2003->2010. Mail for Mac. DeletedItemCount growing. IPM.Appointment. Using MFCMAPI to clean up mess. Find it strange that there are so few complaints about this.... Maybe there is a setting in Mail for Mac preventing it from destroying Exchange 2010 servers....? Please update if any success stories out there..----------------- Kristian Johansen University of Troms
March 16th, 2011 3:55pm

We are having the same issue at U of W. Mail for Mac. DeletedItemCount growing. IPM.Appointment. We can use MFCMAPI to clean it up sure, but it grows again very quickly. There is clearly an issue. MICROSOFT. This is an issue. Please help all of us.
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March 17th, 2011 7:46pm

I grabbed one of the Macs from one of our old employees and setup Apple Mail (IMAP) with my account. Clicked 'Get Mail' and I suddenly had about 12 items in my Recoverable Items root. These are not visible from Outlook -> Recover Deleted Items. I closed Apple Mail and re-opened it. 24 items (appear to be the same ones, duplicated). Clicked Get Mail again. 36 items. Can you see a pattern? This is frustrating. I know that the Mailbox Attendant moves items from the Deletions to Purges after items reach the retention period. Why is exchange letting these items make it to the root, where apparently the attendant never checks? I tried to move the mailbox back to a Exchange 2003 Database, but the move request sees all 28 GB of deleted items and starts moving them. This needs to be looked at. Is there a better place to bring this to attention so it can be looked at? It takes ages to delete 11,000,000+ items from a mailbox using MCFMAPI. So much for Exchange 2010 "cost savings".
March 22nd, 2011 8:02am

Has anyone opened a case with Microsoft on this? I have a couple of users that starting to show the exact same problem, but there is one issue, one of the users was a mac user but was moved to PC weeks back. I have cleared his folder and it continues to grow. I have asked the local support guys to verify all devices he is using, including moble. The other user I just found and have not had a chance to see what they are using.
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March 23rd, 2011 4:28pm

Yes we did. There is a fix in Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 3. Should be released within one month... Temporary solution: 1) Set-Mailbox -Identity <user-identitiy> -CalendarVersionStoreDisabled:$true 2) Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <user-identitiy> 1 will prevent further escalation of the problem and 2 will clean up space. Please note that this fix has consequences and you should check out Calander Repair before implementing. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424432.asp. Kristian Johansen University of Troms
March 30th, 2011 9:19am

2010 SP1 RU 3 was released earlier in the month but pulled back out due to BES issue, the latest from Exchange team... Update 3/21/2011 6:18 PM: We are investigating the issues that customers have reported with our initial release of SP1 RU3. When we are confident that we completely understand these issues, we will provide a timeline moving forward with regards to releasing SP1 RU3. Until that time, we ask for your patience as we continue to solve these issues. Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 3 and BlackBerrys sending duplicate messages http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/03/14/exchange-2010-sp1-rollup-3-and-blackberrys-sending-duplicate-messages.aspxJames Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com
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March 30th, 2011 7:26pm

Same Problem here with Exchange 2010 SP1 RU6 mailbox. Already exported mbx to a pst and created a new one. After 1 hour the TotalDeletedItemSize raised to 1 GB. I've looked in the dumpster and saw always the same element (mail) over and over again. executed the Temporary solution: 1) Set-Mailbox -Identity <user-identitiy> -CalendarVersionStoreDisabled:$true 2) Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <user-identitiy> Nothing changed. Someone any ideas? Regards.
December 15th, 2011 10:42am

Log on to the mailbox using MFCMAPI Navigate to Reoverable Items Expand this and you should see the Deletions, Purges and Versions folders. Delete (hard-delete) the Deletions folder - i.e. the folder itself, not just the contents. Delete an item from Inbox - it should reappear in a newly auto-created Deletions folder. Wait and see if the rogue mail item before starts reappearing - I suspect it won't.Michael Scullion | MCSE MCTS MCITP VCP
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February 21st, 2012 5:54pm

I would look at getting SP2 RU1 installed, create new mailbox stores. move the mailboxes to new stores and see if that alleviates the issue.
February 21st, 2012 6:50pm

Ok this is definitely happening on my environment to a handful of users. Exchange 2010 SP1 RU6 running on Server 08 R2 RTM. few observations - 1. Deleted Item recovery that is accessible from Outlook and OWA goes to the folder /Root Container/Recoverable Items/Deletions - which is where the dumpster quota is enforces. The problem I am having, which I assume is the same as others on this thread, affecting at least 3 of my users, is that Calendar Items are ending up 1 folder level up in /Root Container/Recoverable Items. these 3 users have generated whats reported as many GB of junk - I have used MFCMapi to clear it every few days - I will try changing the setting Set-Mailbox -Identity <user-identitiy> -CalendarVersionStoreDisabled:$true and see if that helps, but I think its a bug. Originally I thought it was a client, causing this but I can't find anything. The user I have who generated over 100gb uses various clients - pretty much everything but Outlook (he has a Mac w/ Macmail via IMAP and ical via EWS, a PC w/ thunderbird via IMAP, OWA, iPad via ActiveSync, and a phone using another IMAP client. turning one or multiple off did not stop this behavior. the other 2 users generated 20gb each and do use Outlook - 1 is on a Mac using 2011. Is it possible that the bug is in Calendar assistant? we will go to SP2 at some point, but because this is affecting 3 users, I'm not going to jump on building new mailbox stores without ringing MS support first. Greg
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March 13th, 2012 2:37pm

sorry my 2nd observation is that the size used is not accurate - the one user reported over 100gb - actually it was over 200gb in the recovery items folder, when I cleaned it on MFCMAPI i gained back about 55gb of whitespace in the database
March 13th, 2012 2:42pm

When we saw this issue with Outlook users a fix was to simply recreate their Outlook profile.Michael Scullion | MCSE MCTS MCITP VCP
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March 14th, 2012 6:52am

When we saw this issue with Outlook users a fix was to simply recreate their Outlook profile. Michael Scullion | MCSE MCTS MCITP VCP Unfortunately the use who the problem is the biggest for me, doesn't use Outlook - although he does have it configured on is Mac - 10.6 w/ Mac Outlook 2011.
March 15th, 2012 11:19am

We have a similar issue right now. The first user about 1 week ago, the second user last night. The second user got updated from Outlook 2003 to 2010 two days ago (First issue was also on 2010). Outlook seems to be stuck while synchronizing, it keeps duplicating emails in the inbox and instantly deletes them to the dumpster. This has generated 30GB of duplicated objects inside the dumpster and lots of transactionlogs in less then 12 hours, after reaching the 30 GB DeletedItems (default dumpster quota??) it started filling up the users inbox. Creating a new Outlook Profile has solved the issue in both cases. I need to find the cause of this issue before we can start the big rollout of Outlook 2010 to all clients. If this issue occurs on multiple clients at the same time this would blow up our databases. As far as i know there are absolutely no Apple devices involved in both cases.
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April 20th, 2012 5:06am

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