Keep in mind that when you move the mailboxes, they'll actually remain present until the MailboxRetention period has expired. Does the following command also return a count of zero? (Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB>).Count If this count is non-zero while the equivalent Get-Mailbox is zero, try setting the MailboxRetention value to zero and then cleaning the database with the following commands: Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity <DB> -MailboxRetention 0.00:00:00 Clean-MailboxDatabase -Identity <DB> At that point have another shot at removing the database. Cheers, Lain

If you run just a Get-MailboxStatistics -Identity <DB>, does it list the names? Are they system or discovery mailboxes? Given I can't see these mailboxes, I'll mention another command that can be run on the off-chance it helps you out. foreach ($mbx in (Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB>)) { Remove-Mailbox -Database $mbx.Database -StoreMailboxIdentity $mbx.MailboxGuid -Confirm:$false } This won't work for arbitration mailboxes, incidentally. If you find you are dealing with an arbitration mailbox (though it's hard to imagine all three are - still, it's possible) then you need to add the following parameter somewhere in the Remove-Mailbox command: -Arbitration. What it will attempt to do is remove any non-arbitration mailbox - including disconnected mailboxes (though they should have been cleaned out with the above steps, so my gut feeling is they aren't disconnected). If the above doesn't help, can you run the following and post the output back here? Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB> | ft DisplayName,ObjectClass Cheers, Lain Well, this makes no sense, but I was able to remove the DB's successfully now. When I ran "Get-MailboxStatistics -Database -Identity <DB>" the query this time came back with two user archives that somehow ended up on these two databases, even though I verified multiple times the last couple days that zero mailboxes were on them. I then moved those archives back to where they were supposed to be, and re-ran the same command. The output came back with the same info showing those user archives on the DB's I was trying to remove. I looked up those users and verified they were NOT on the databases I was trying to remove, and ran the Get command a third time. It still came back with those users even though they definitely weren't on that database. So, I dismounted the database, re-mounted, and ran the command again - and they still showed up, even though when I query the user account directly it appeared on the correct database. For giggles, I tried to remove the database to see if any new errors would appear, and voila, it worked. No errors whatsoever... So, I'm not sure what was going on, but the two databases in question are now successfully removed. Thanks for your help!!

Keep in mind that when you move the mailboxes, they'll actually remain present until the MailboxRetention period has expired. Does the following command also return a count of zero? (Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB>).Count If this count is non-zero while the equivalent Get-Mailbox is zero, try setting the MailboxRetention value to zero and then cleaning the database with the following commands: Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity <DB> -MailboxRetention 0.00:00:00 Clean-MailboxDatabase -Identity <DB> At that point have another shot at removing the database. Cheers, Lain You were right on. When I ran the ".count" it came back with 89 and 126 respectively. So, I ran the -MailboxRetention 0.00:00:00 and then Clean-MailboxDatabase command on both DB's and the number dropped to 2 and 3 respectively. I still can't remove the DB's, at it still throws the same error as before...any idea what I need to do for the last remaining 2-3 "mailboxes"? Thanks!

I'm trying to remove two extra Mailbox databases that we recently migrated users off of during consolidation. However, when I try and remove the DB's I get the following error message: -------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Exchange Error -------------------------------------------------------- The mailbox database 'chsexmbm' cannot be deleted. chsexmbm Failed Error: This mailbox database contains one or more mailboxes, mailbox plans, archive mailboxes, or arbitration mailboxes. To get a list of all mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID>. To get a list of all mailbox plans in this database, run the command Get-MailboxPlan. To get a list of archive mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -Archive. To get a list of all arbitration mailboxes in this database, run the command Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -Arbitration. To disable a non-arbitration mailbox so that you can delete the mailbox database, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID>. To disable an archive mailbox so you can delete the mailbox database, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -Archive. Arbitration mailboxes should be moved to another server; to do this, run the command New-MoveRequest <parameters>. If this is the last server in the organization, run the command Disable-Mailbox <Mailbox ID> -Arbitration -DisableLastArbitrationMailboxAllowed to disable the arbitration mailbox. Mailbox plans should be moved to another server; to do this, run the command Set-MailboxPlan <MailboxPlan ID> -Database <Database ID>. -------------------------------------------------------- OK -------------------------------------------------------- Now I have run the "Get-Mailbox -Database <DB> -Arbitration" and get three entries: Name Alias ServerName ---- ----- ---------- FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf- FederatedEmail.4c1f4d8b-8179-4148-93bf- smschsexmb1 00a95fa1e042 00a95fa1e042 SystemMailbox{1f05a927-f1d5-4153-bd93-d SystemMailbox{1f05a927-f1d5-4153-bd93-d smschsexmb1 fca46ac6957} fca46ac6957} SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e SystemMailbox{e0dc1c29-89c3-4034-b678-e smschsexmb1 6c29d823ed9} 6c29d823ed9} However, when I try and move or remove these mailboxes, I get an error from EMS stating that they cannot be found. Any idea what I need to do here to resolve this so I can remove these DB's? Thanks!!

You need to rehome them to another DB to remove the default DB. http://svmanjrekar.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/move-arbitration-mailbox-and-delete-the-default-database-in-exchange-server-2010/James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Ok. So, I was able to "successfully" move these three mailboxes to a different DB even though it threw errors the first time (my syntax must have been incorrect). When I run the "Get-Mailbox -Database <DB> -Arbitration" on the two DB's in question, they come back blank. However, when I run the "Remove-MailboxDatabase -Identity "<DBname>" -Confirm" I get the same error as above. Ideas?

Have you run all the cmdlets in the error to see if you have other mailboxes remaining? Get-MailboxPlan, Get-Mailbox -Database <Database ID> -ArchiveJames Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

The only cmdlet I have not run is the "Get-MailboxPlan" because I'm not familiar with that particular command. All the others I have run though and they come back blank: Get-Mailbox -Database <DB> Get-Mailbox -Database <DB> -Arbitration Get-Mailbox -Database <DB> -Archive I also have run the following script which outputs the number of mailboxes on the DB's in Exchange, and it also came back at zero (blank). $dblist=Get-MailboxDatabase ($dblist | %{write-host $_.name (get-mailbox -database $_.name).count})

Did you remove them in the move request after you moved those 3 mailboxes?James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Yes, after I verified the move request was completed successfully, I removed the move requests for the three mailboxes.

If you run just a Get-MailboxStatistics -Identity <DB>, does it list the names? Are they system or discovery mailboxes? Given I can't see these mailboxes, I'll mention another command that can be run on the off-chance it helps you out. foreach ($mbx in (Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB>)) { Remove-Mailbox -Database $mbx.Database -StoreMailboxIdentity $mbx.MailboxGuid -Confirm:$false } This won't work for arbitration mailboxes, incidentally. If you find you are dealing with an arbitration mailbox (though it's hard to imagine all three are - still, it's possible) then you need to add the following parameter somewhere in the Remove-Mailbox command: -Arbitration. What it will attempt to do is remove any non-arbitration mailbox - including disconnected mailboxes (though they should have been cleaned out with the above steps, so my gut feeling is they aren't disconnected). If the above doesn't help, can you run the following and post the output back here? Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB> | ft DisplayName,ObjectClass Cheers, Lain

Hi Suggestion 1: verify mailboxes: 1. In Exchange management shell, run these cmdlets: Set-ADServerSettings -ViewEntireForest $True get-mailbox -database "DBname" arbitration 2. Please verify if arbitration mailbox shows. If yes, please move these mailboxes with this cmdlet: Get-Mailbox -Database "DBname" -Arbitration|New-MoveRequest -TargetDatabase "DB2Name" Note: please replace DB2Name with the target database name. 3. Wait for the complete of AD replication, after that, please try to remove database again. Suggestion 2: If the database still cannot be removed and you have followed the instruction in error message, but nothing returned. It seems the database is empty. So I suggest we use ADSI Edit to remove the database object directly since it no longer contains any mailboxes. TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com Terence Yu TechNet Community Support

Hi Do you have anything update on your issue?Terence Yu TechNet Community Support

Keep in mind that when you move the mailboxes, they'll actually remain present until the MailboxRetention period has expired. Does the following command also return a count of zero? (Get-MailboxStatistics -Database <DB>).Count If this count is non-zero while the equivalent Get-Mailbox is zero, try setting the MailboxRetention value to zero and then cleaning the database with the following commands: Set-MailboxDatabase -Identity <DB> -MailboxRetention 0.00:00:00 Clean-MailboxDatabase -Identity <DB> At that point have another shot at removing the database. Cheers, Lain