Exporting Exchange mailbox data to PST is considered an inbuilt backup methodology where each user can take a backup of his/her account. But if you read various Exchange forums and Microsoft Community messages, you will find that many users find several problems while exporting the mailboxes. Here is a scenario –

“I’m having a problem in exporting mailboxes to PST; all the requests are getting into the queue and remain there with Queued Status. I even tried to restart the MRS, the CAS Servers, and MBX Servers, but none of them helped me resolve the issue.”

Many queries like this are submitted on Exchange forums, Microsoft community, and other Exchange platform.

Exchange Server is one of the most widely used email servers provided by Microsoft. With the help of Exchange server, users can manage their emails, contacts, calendars, etc. Almost every organization relies on Exchange for storing their data or day-to-day activities. However, users need to backup their Exchange Data to avoid any data loss or disaster recovery. Also, when users want to use their Exchange data with MS Outlook, they need to convert it to PST format.

As an administrator, you might know how to migrate Exchange mailboxes with PowerShell commands. But, while exporting Exchange data to PST or migrating Exchange mailboxes, many users often face an error “New-MailboxExportRequest Stuck in Queued Status.”

In this blog, we will discuss how you can get rid of this issue with the most effective methodology.

Methods to Get Rid of MailboxExportRequest Stuck in Queued

There are various solutions to fix this error, but it’s not necessary that every solution will work in your case. So, you’ll have to try every solution to get rid of this issue.

  1. Update the Exchange Version

    2. Sometime, this problem might occur due to an old version of Exchange Server. So, you’ll have to keep your Exchange Server updated to improve its performance and eliminate such issues automatically. Also, you get better security, management, and flexibility with the newer versions of Exchange. Updating Exchange Server might resolve “mailbox request stuck in queued” issue. However, if it doesn’t, then you can refer to below methods.

  2. Check Whether the Exchange Server is in DAG Environment

    3. The mailbox export request is used to check the progress of Exchange mailboxes server in the DAG environment. So, you’ll have to check if the Exchange Server is in DAG environment or not. If it is present in DAG, then you’ll have to verify the DAG replication is in a stable state and there are no issues related to DAG. Using this technique can also resolve the New-MailboxExportRequest Queued issue in Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016.

  3. Prune Replication Process

    4. One of the effective and successful methods to get rid of this error is to suspend the replication task first.

    • Use the below command to suspend the replication task.
      • Suspend-MailboxDatabaseCopy – Identify “DB1\servername’\
    • Now, remove the existing data file with the below command.
      • Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy – Identity “DB1\Servername” – DeleteExistingFiles
    • Wait for the command to execute. Once the cmdlet is executed, restart replication of the database. You can also perform manual replication with the below cmdlet.
      • Update-MailboxDatabaseCopy -Identity “DB1\servername” – DeleteExistingFiles – ManualResume

      After performing these steps, you will not face the stuck in queued error. However, if the problem still exists, then you can use the below methods.

  4. Using DataMoveReplicationConstraint

    5. This method is applicable to Exchange 2010/13/16 environment. You’ll have to set DataMoveReplicationConstraint value to none. Make sure you don’t set it to zero. You can follow the below steps to set the value to none.

    • First, you’ll have to check the value of constraint, whether it is Second copy or SecondDatacenter. The command will look like this:
      • Set-MailboxDatabase – Identity database name – DataMoveReplicationConstraint Second copy
      Set-MailboxDatabase – Identity databasename – DataMoveReplicationConstraint SecondDatacenter
    • If any of the above cmdlets are available, then replace it with the below command: None
      • Set-MailboxDatabase – Identity databasename – DataMoveReplicationConstraint None

      After replacing the command, try to migrate Exchange mailboxes again. The problem may not persist again.

Limitations of Manual Methods

Well, performing the above manual methods might resolve some issues, but there are some limitations with it, such as:

  • These methods are not ideal for every Exchange version
  • You cannot migrate mailboxes in bulk with these methods
  • Performing can also result in loss of mailboxes data, or it can disturb the hierarchy mailboxes.

So, to deal with these limitations, there is an alternate solution that doesn’t involve using the New-MailboxExportRequest for exporting Exchange mailboxes. You can directly export Exchange mailboxes to Outlook PST with the help of this tool.

Exchange Migrator

It is one of the best tools designed with advanced algorithms to migrate Exchange mailboxes from both on-premises and hosted Exchange. It can migrate every item of Exchange, such as Mailbox items, rules/folder permissions, Outlook profiles, etc. without any data interruption. Also, the smart filters allow you to migrate specific data of Exchange based on item type, date, include/exclude folders, etc. With this Exchange migration tool, you can easily perform Exchange to Exchange migration.

Download trialExchange Migrator

Wrap Up

Migrating mailboxes from Exchange is crucial to keep the data safe. However, many users encounter the New-MailboxExportRequest error with the manual approach. So, here we have mentioned some effective solutions to get rid of this issue. Also, we have mentioned a third-party tool that enables users to migrate Exchange mailboxes quickly.