Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP2

Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console (EMC) or the Exchange Management Shell to remove a public folder. To help determine which public folders should be removed, see View Public Folder Item Statistics.

Looking for other management tasks related to public folders? Check out Managing Public Folders.

Caution:
The Remove-PublicFolder cmdlet removes the public folder data from all servers in your organization. If you only want to remove data from one server, use the Set-PublicFolder cmdlet with the Replicas parameter. For more information, see Set-PublicFolder.

Use the EMC to remove public folders

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folders" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, click Toolbox.

  2. In the result pane, click Public Folder Management Console.

  3. In the action pane, click Open Tool. The Public Folder Management Console appears.

  4. In the console tree, expand Default Public Folders, and then select the parent public folder of the public folder that you want to remove.

  5. In the result pane, select the public folder that you want to remove.

  6. In the action pane, click Remove. A warning appears. Click Yes to confirm that you want to remove the public folder.

Use the Shell to remove public folders

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Public folders" entry in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example removes the public folder My Public Folder.

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Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\My Public Folder"

This example removes the public folder My Public Folder and specifies the server from which to remove it.

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Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\My Public Folder" -Server "My Server"

This example tests the previous command without making any modifications.

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Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\My Public Folder" -WhatIf

This example removes the public folder My Public Folder and all of its subfolders because the command runs recursively.

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Remove-PublicFolder -Identity "\My Public Folder" -Recurse: $True

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Remove-PublicFolder.