Hi, we have an archive user account , we have just had a problem with our firewall and our Syslog server that caused 1.3 MILLION email alerts to be sent! This has not stopped Exchange but when we use Outlook to manage the mailbox it hangs. We have a rule built in to clear these messages but it crashes whenever it tries. Does anybody know of a way to clear a large quantity of specific mail without using Outlook? Unfortunately, as it is our archive, I cannot simply delete the lot and start again! although I have now created a new archive user mailbox and started using that, just in case!

Hi, You can use exmerge to delete the mails without outlook. Please refer the following articles: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260037 http://www.petri.co.il/delete_messages_from_mailboxes_by_using_exmerge.htm Navin Microsoft Unified Communications

Either use Exmerge so you can filter by date, subject, folders etc..... If the mailbox is only by your syslos server and these are the only emails which come in , then you can use a mailbox manager policy to delete the emals based on the age, say if the 1.6 million came in the last 2 days,t hen filter using this. - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319188 You can always try OWA Sukh

DOH! Why didn't I think of that! Many thanks :)

Hi Navin, using Exmerge has partly worked but i got the following error on some items; [12:20:12] Error copying message with subject 'Forwarded Syslog Message from 192.0.2.60:192.0.2.60' in folder '\Inbox'. (MAPI_W_PARTIAL_COMPLETION) [12:20:12] Error copying message with subject 'Forwarded Syslog Message from 192.0.2.60:192.0.2.60' in folder '\Inbox'. (MAPI_W_PARTIAL_COMPLETION) [12:20:12] Error copying message with subject 'Forwarded Syslog Message from 192.0.2.60:192.0.2.60' in folder '\Inbox'. (MAPI_W_PARTIAL_COMPLETION) [12:20:12] Errors encountered copying the messages in folder '\Inbox'. One or more messages may not have been copied. [12:20:14] Number of messages processed for mailbox 'Monitor': 568834 [12:20:14] Number of folders processed for mailbox 'Monitor': 1 [12:20:14] Non fatal errors encountered. Copy process completed for mailbox 'Monitor' ('FOIUSER'). [12:20:14] Number of items copied from the source store for all mailboxes processed: 568834 [12:20:14] Total number of folders processed in the source store: 1 [12:20:14] 1 mailboxes successfully processed. 0 mailboxes were not successfully processed. 552247 non-fatal errors encountered. [12:20:14] Process completion time: 0:01:46:59 So, as you can see 552,247 items did not get archived. :( any ideas? i have seen the AV issue and so have now completely removed AV from the server! Ian:)

Hi, Its due to the large size of the mailbox. To resolve this problem, use one of the following methods: Export fewer than 16,383 items based on the received date of the messages. Use Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 to manually export the items. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949759Navin Microsoft Unified Communications

Thanks Navin, I'm using 2007, on an x64 Win7 PC with 4GB RAM, It took several hours to open Outlook but it did it in the end! Then, when I tried to run the rules, it took several more hours so I hoped ExMerge would do the trick. But 1.3 million 16k at a time and and hour each go!!! ouch! i am now back with Outlook and, as i did get it under the million mark overnight! it is now chomping them off at about 100 every 4 seconds! I guess it will get quicker so I'm leaving it alone to "munch" over the weekend. Many thanks for your help. Ian :)

Glad to know it worked :)Navin Microsoft Unified Communications