Applies to: Exchange Server 2010 SP3, Exchange Server 2010 SP1

Topic Last Modified: 2012-07-23

You may want to disable a user's personal (on-premises) or cloud-based archive for troubleshooting purposes or if you're moving the mailbox to a version of Exchange that doesn't support personal archives.

If you disable a personal archive, all information in the archive will be kept in the mailbox database until the mailbox retention time passes and the personal archive is permanently deleted. (By default, Exchange keeps disconnected mailboxes, including archive mailboxes, for thirty days. To modify the mailbox retention period, see Configure Deleted Mailbox and Disabled Personal Archive Retention.)

If you want to reconnect the personal archive to that mailbox, you can use the Connect-Mailbox cmdlet with the Archive parameter. If you want to reconnect a cloud-based archive to a mailbox, you can use the Enable-Mailbox cmdlet with the RemoteArchive parameter. For more information, see Connect a Disconnected Personal (On-Premises) or Cloud-Based Archive.

Important:
The retention period for disconnected cloud-based archives is covered by the service level agreement (SLA) for Exchange Online Archiving. During this period, you can reconnect the cloud-based archive to the on-premises mailbox from which it was disconnected. After this period, the disconnected cloud-based archive is permanently deleted.

Looking for other management tasks related to personal archives? Check out Managing Archives.

Use the EMC to disable a personal archive

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

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

  2. In the result pane, select the mailbox for which you want to disable the personal archive.

    Note:
    You can create a filter to find all of the personal archives in your organization. In the result pane, click Add Filter. In the filter's list boxes, specify the following values: Has Archive > Equals > Yes. Click Apply Filter.
  3. In the action pane, click Disable Archive.

  4. A warning box appears confirming that you want to disable the archive. Click Yes.

Use the Shell to disable a personal archive

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

Disabling the personal archive will remove the archive from the mailbox and mark it in the mailbox database for deletion. This example disables the archive for Chris Ashton's mailbox. It doesn't disable the mailbox.

Copy Code
Disable-Mailbox -Identity "Chris Ashton" -Archive

A warning appears confirming that you want to disable the archive. Type Y to continue.

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

Use the Shell to disable a cloud-based archive

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

Note:
You can’t use the EMC to disable a cloud-based archive.

Disabling the cloud-based archive removes the archive from the mailbox and marks it in Exchange Online for deletion. This example disables the cloud-based archive for Chris Ashton's mailbox. It doesn't disable the primary mailbox.

Copy Code
Disable-Mailbox -Identity "Chris Ashton" -RemoteArchive

A warning appears confirming that you want to disable the cloud-based archive. Type Y to continue.

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

Other Tasks

After you disable the on-premises or cloud-based archive, you may want to reconnect the disconnected archive. For details, see Connect a Disconnected Personal (On-Premises) or Cloud-Based Archive.