How to move on-premise mailbox using Exchange Administration Console

In Microsoft Exchange, Mailboxes are stored within Databases which are .edb files. There may come a time where you will be required to do an Exchange Mailbox move to relocate a mailbox from one database to another. For example the database may have grown too large and you may need to move some mailboxes to a different location to allow further growth.

Below are some simple instructions on how to move a users mailbox using EAC Exchange Administration Console.

Before you begin –

• Depending on the environment the estimated time to move a 3GB mailbiox could take up to an hour.
• You need to be assigned the appropriate permissions before you can perform this procedure.
• It is recommended to perform this after hours. The user must not access their mailbox during this time.

Using the EAC to move a mailbox

In the EAC, go to Recipients -> Migration-> Click ADD + and then select Move to a different database

Search for the user you wish to move. You can select multiple users.

Give your Move a name so you can distinguish which mailboxes are being moved. Then select the destination database that you will move the mailbox to.

Last step is to select the user you wish to notify when the move completes.

Move mailbox to another database with PowerShell

You can move a mailbox in Exchange 2010/2013/2016/2019 to another database with Exchange PowerShell.

To do this we make use of the New-MoveRequest cmdlet.

[PS] C:\>New-MoveRequest -Identity "[email protected]" -TargetDatabase "DB02"

DisplayName StatusDetail        TotalMailboxSize               TotalArchiveSize PercentComplete
----------- ------------        ----------------               ---------------- ---------------
Doe John    WaitingForJobPickup 4.891 GB (5,251,716,383 bytes)                  0

Change the identity, if you want to move the mailbox by the name of the user.

[PS] C:\>New-MoveRequest -Identity "Doe John" -TargetDatabase "DB02"
 
DisplayName StatusDetail        TotalMailboxSize               TotalArchiveSize PercentComplete
----------- ------------        ----------------               ---------------- ---------------
Doe John    WaitingForJobPickup 4.891 GB (5,251,716,383 bytes)