Clean up the Recoverable Items Folder in Exchange Online

Accidental or malicious deletions pose a potential risk to data integrity within Exchange Online mailboxes. To mitigate these risks and support eDiscovery efforts, Exchange Online incorporates the Recoverable Items folder. This guide provides a comprehensive approach to effectively managing and cleaning up this critical folder.

Understanding the Recoverable Items Folder

The Recoverable Items folder is a hidden area within an Exchange Online mailbox that stores deleted items, preserving them for a specific period or until certain conditions are met. This is crucial for compliance, legal holds, and item recovery. However, in certain situations, managing its size becomes necessary.

Prerequisites for Cleanup

Before proceeding with any cleanup actions, ensure the following conditions are met:

  • No Active Holds: The target mailbox must not have any In-Place Holds, Litigation Holds, or other types of holds applied. These holds prevent items from being permanently deleted.
  • Single Item Recovery Status: Single item recovery should not be enabled for the mailbox if the goal is permanent deletion.
  • Required Permissions: You need appropriate administrative access. This typically requires membership in the eDiscovery Manager role group or possession of the Compliance Search management role.

Step 1: Identifying Items with a Compliance Search

The first step involves using a compliance search to pinpoint the items residing within the Recoverable Items folder of the target mailbox. This allows you to identify the contents before taking any irreversible deletion actions.

The following PowerShell script assists in creating a compliance search specifically targeting the Recoverable Items folder:

# Prompt for the email address of the target mailbox
$emailAddress = Read-Host "Enter the email address of the target mailbox"

# Import required modules
Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

# Prompt for admin credentials
$credentials = Get-Credential -Message "Enter your admin credentials"

# Connect to Exchange Online and Security & Compliance PowerShell
Connect-ExchangeOnline -Credential $credentials -ShowBanner:$false -CommandName Get-MailboxFolderStatistics
Connect-IPPSSession -Credential $credentials -ShowBanner:$false

# Retrieve folder statistics for the target mailbox
$folderStatistics = Get-MailboxFolderStatistics $emailAddress
$recoverableItemsFolderQuery = ""

# Iterate through folder statistics to locate the 'Recoverable Items' folder
foreach ($folderStatistic in $folderStatistics) {
    $folderPath = $folderStatistic.FolderPath
    if ($folderPath -eq "/Recoverable Items") {
        $folderId = $folderStatistic.FolderId
        $encoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::GetEncoding("us-ascii")
        $nibbler = $encoding.GetBytes("0123456789ABCDEF")
        $folderIdBytes = [Convert]::FromBase64String($folderId)
        $indexIdBytes = New-Object byte[] 48
        $indexIdIdx = 0
        $folderIdBytes | Select-Object -Skip 23 -First 24 | ForEach-Object {
            $indexIdBytes[$indexIdIdx++] = $nibbler[$_ -shr 4]
            $indexIdBytes[$indexIdIdx++] = $nibbler[$_ -band 0xF]
        }

        $recoverableItemsFolderQuery = "folderid:$($encoding.GetString($indexIdBytes))"
        break
    }
}

# If the recoverable items folder query is not empty, create a compliance search
if ($recoverableItemsFolderQuery -ne "") {
    $searchName = "RecoverableItemsSearch_$emailAddress"
    $description = "Compliance search for '/Recoverable Items' folder of mailbox '$emailAddress'"
    New-ComplianceSearch -Name $searchName -ContentMatchQuery $recoverableItemsFolderQuery -Description $description -ExchangeLocation $emailAddress -Force
    Write-Host "Compliance search created with name '$searchName', description '$description', and Exchange location '$emailAddress'."
} else {
    Write-Host "No '/Recoverable Items' folder found in the specified mailbox."
}

# Initiate the compliance search
Start-ComplianceSearch -Identity $searchName

This script connects to Exchange Online and Security & Compliance PowerShell, retrieves folder statistics for the specified mailbox, identifies the unique folder ID of the Recoverable Items folder, and then creates and starts a compliance search targeting that specific folder.

Step 2: Executing the Cleanup Action

Once the compliance search has been successfully created and you have validated the search results (it's highly recommended to preview the items found by the search before proceeding), you can initiate the deletion process using the New-ComplianceSearchAction cmdlet.

New-ComplianceSearchAction -SearchName "RecoverableItemsSearch_EmailAddress" -Purge -PurgeType HardDelete

Important Considerations for Cleanup:

  • Replace "RecoverableItemsSearch_EmailAddress" with the actual name of the compliance search created in Step 1.
  • The -Purge parameter specifies that items found by the search should be deleted.
  • The -PurgeType HardDelete parameter indicates that the items should be permanently removed and not moved to the user's Deletions folder.
  • Limitation: This command deletes a maximum of 10 items per mailbox with each execution. You will need to repeat the execution of New-ComplianceSearchAction until all desired items have been removed. This limitation is a safeguard to prevent accidental mass deletions.

Step 3: Verifying Cleanup Results

After executing the cleanup action multiple times as needed, it's essential to verify the results by checking the current size and item count within the Recoverable Items folder for both the primary and archive mailboxes. Use the Get-MailboxFolderStatistics cmdlet for this purpose:

To check the primary mailbox:

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics <UserMailbox> -FolderScope RecoverableItems | FL Name,FolderAndSubfolderSize,ItemsInFolderAndSubfolders

To check the archive mailbox (if enabled):

Get-MailboxFolderStatistics <UserMailbox> -FolderScope RecoverableItems -Archive | FL Name,FolderAndSubfolderSize,ItemsInFolderAndSubfolders

Replace <UserMailbox> with the email address or identity of the target mailbox. The output will show the size and item count for the Recoverable Items folder, allowing you to confirm the effectiveness of the cleanup process.

Conclusion

Efficiently managing and cleaning up the Recoverable Items folder in Exchange Online is crucial for maintaining the integrity and security of your organization's email data. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can identify and permanently remove unwanted items from this folder. However, it is paramount to reiterate that improper management of the Recoverable Items folder can lead to irreversible data loss. Always ensure you understand the purpose and impact of any actions before proceeding with deletion. Exercise caution and validate your compliance search results before performing any purge operations.

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