Associate an Exchange Mailbox with a new User

Occasionally you will need to move an existing Exchange 2003 mailbox from one user to another. This may be the result of employee turn over or change of responsibilities. To move the mailbox, you must first detach it from the current user account. To detach a mailbox you will use the Exchange Tasks wizard in Active Directory to delete the mailbox. In Exchange 2003, deleted mailboxes are not completely removed until the time specified in Keep Deleted Mailbox for XX Days has expired. The default is 30 days, but you need to verify this setting in your Exchange Org BEFORE deleting a mailbox. This setting can be viewed on the Limits tabbed page of the Mailbox Store that contains the mailbox. Once you have verified the Keep Deleted Mailbox for XX Days setting, follow the steps below.

1. Locate the user in Active Directory
2. Right click on the user object
3. Select Exchange Tasks
4. Click to highlight Delete Mailbox
5. Click Next
6. Click Next to detach the mailbox
7. Open Exchange System Manager
8. Navigate to the mailbox folder that contains the mailbox that you need to move
9. Right click and select Run Cleanup Agent
10. A small x will appear next to the mailbox
11. Right click on the mailbox and select Reconnect
12. Select the user object that you want to associate the mailbox with and click OK.

The mailbox is now associated with the new user object.