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) and the Exchange Management Shell to remove a mailbox. When you remove a mailbox, you disconnect the mailbox from its associated user account and remove the user from Active Directory. The mailbox is retained in the mailbox database for a specified amount of time. By default, Exchange retains the disconnected mailbox for 30 days. You can reconnect the mailbox to its user account before the specified amount of time expires. For more information, see Understanding Disconnected Mailboxes.

If you want to permanently remove a mailbox, including the associated user account in Active Directory, you must use the Shell.

Looking for other management tasks related to user mailboxes? Check out Managing User Mailboxes.

Use the EMC to remove a mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

  1. In the console tree, navigate to Recipient Configuration > Mailbox.

  2. In the result pane, select the mailbox you want to remove.

  3. In the action pane, under the name of the mailbox, click Remove.

  4. A warning appears asking, Are you sure you want to remove 'mailbox name'? Click Yes to remove the mailbox.

Use the Shell to remove a mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example removes the mailbox for user John from John's user account and also deletes the user account.

Copy Code 
Remove-Mailbox -Identity contoso\john

Use the Shell to permanently remove a mailbox

You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this procedure. To see what permissions you need, see the "Recipient Provisioning Permissions" section in the Mailbox Permissions topic.

This example permanently deletes the mailbox and the user account for John.

Copy Code 
Remove-Mailbox -Identity contoso\john -Permanent

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