As an Exchange admin, you have to export mailboxes to PST for various reasons. For instance, you need to take backup of the mailbox of an employee who is leaving the organization or before deleting a user account. You also have to export the mailboxes to PST for archiving purposes or meeting the compliance requirements. For this task, you can use the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) – the management console in Exchange Server. In this article, we will describe the complete stepwise process to convert EDB to PST using the EAC in Exchange Server.

Process of Exporting Mailbox to PST using EAC

Here’s the stepwise procedure to export mailboxes to PST via EAC in Exchange Server.

1. Assign Mailbox Import Export Role to User

For exporting mailboxes to PST via EAC, the user account, you’ll be using for the process, must have the Mailbox Import Export role assigned. This role is not assigned to any role group or even admins. Below are the steps to assign this role:

1. Log in to the EAC, click on permissions in the left pane and then tap the ‘+’ symbol to open the Role Group window.
2. Give the new role group a name, select the role Mailbox Import Export and add the desired admin account as a member to the group.

C. After clicking OK, you will see the newly created role group listed under admin roles.

After performing this step, the admin added to this group will become eligible to perform mailbox export.

2. Create a Network Share for PST Export and Grant Required Permissions

The location to store the exported PST files must be a network share or UNC path as you cannot store these files on a local drive. This is why, first create a folder and share it with the user. Moreover, you must ensure that the Exchange Trusted Subsystem security group has Read/Write permissions on the network share. Here’s how:

1. You need to first create a folder for storing the PST files. After this, right-click on this folder and select Properties.
2. In the Properties window, under Sharing, click on the Share button.

c. Add Exchange Trusted Subsystem by typing its name in the drop-down bar.

d. The Exchange Trusted Subsystem will be added to the File Sharing list. By default, it will have only Read permission. You must provide it Read/Write permission by clicking the arrow pointing downwards.

e. After that, click on the Share button and copy the UNC path in the next window and save it in a notepad or any text editor. This path will be needed while exporting mailbox to PST.

f. After providing network sharing permission to Exchange Trusted Subsystem and relevant admins/users, you need to provide NTFS permissions. These permissions allow Exchange to write files to the disk on the computer where PSTs are stored. To assign these permissions, click on the Add button and type Exchange Trusted Subsystem. After that, click the checkbox next to Full Control to allow Exchange Trusted Subsystem to write PSTs to disk.   

After performing these steps, you can start exporting mailboxes to PSTs.

3. Export Mailboxes to PST via EAC

Exporting mailboxes to PST via EAC is a simple task, in which, you choose the relevant mailbox and export it to the target folder. EAC uses Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) to export mailboxes to PST files. Below are steps for performing this export:

1. Open the EAC and click on recipients in the left pane.
2. Then, click on the three dots and select the Export to a PST File option.
3. In the Export to a .pst file window, browse and select the mailbox that you want to export. Here, you can choose to either export only the contents of the mailbox or the contents of the mailbox archive by clicking on the desired radio button. Click Next.

d. Use the information in the UNC path saved in the step 2 c) in the following format: \\server\folder\ExportFile01.pst. So, our path will become \\EXCHSVRIB1\PSTs\Q.pst, where Q is the name that we have given to our PST file. Click Next.

e. In the next window, you can choose a mailbox to receive a notification email when the .pst export completes by browsing and selecting its name and ticking the checkbox above it. Click Finish.

After you have clicked Finish, the export will commence and the PST will be exported to the destination folder.

Limitations of the EAC Export Method

Although the EAC method is simple and straightforward, it has the following limitations:

• Unable to export multiple PSTs simultaneously
• Unable to export public folders.
• Requires import/export role and permissions
• Doesn’t export PST when the server or database is offline
• No preview of mailbox content or granular control over which mailbox items are exported

Stellar Converter for EDB: A Simple Way to Convert EDB to PST

Exporting mailboxes to PST using EAC has many limitations like single-mailbox export at a time and dependency on an online Exchange Server. To overcome these limitations, Stellar Converter for EDB can be used.

As this tool doesn’t rely on Exchange’s Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) used in the EAC method, it can extract PSTs from EDB even when Exchange server or database is offline. Moreover, it can export large mailboxes (larger than 50GB) to PSTs quite easily, which when done through EAC may not work reliably every time due to processing timeouts and memory constraints.

On top of exporting user and archive mailboxes to PST, this software can even export public folders to PST. As public folders are not backed up during standard backup processes, this functionality is very important for Exchange admins who periodically back up public folders. Unlike EAC, this EDB to PST Converter tool doesn’t require role assignments or UNC path permissions, as it operates on local EDB files or direct server access. The tool always preserves folder structure, attachments, and metadata during conversion, which is also a crucial requirement of Exchange admins.

Conclusion

EAC provides a native option for mailbox exports to PST and is often used by admins for mailbox export. However, it has many limitations as discussed in this article and requires role assignments and permissions, which can prolong the process. To simplify PST extraction, Exchange admins can use Stellar Converter for EDB. It converts both offline and online EDBs to PSTs and doesn’t require any permissions or role assignments.