How to Export Messages from a Mail Queue on Exchange

This post will describe how to export all messages from a mail queue on Exchange 2010, so the mails can be resubmitted on another server.

It is based on field notes, from a recent case, where we had to move a certain queue to another server.

It is possible to export one or all messages from one specific or all queues on an Exchange Server. This post describes how to do it for Exchange 2010, but the process is quite similar on Exchange 2013.

To do the export of messages, you can use the Export-Message cmdlet, which is part of Exchange. If you want to resubmit the exported mails (now .eml files), then put them into the replay directory on another Exchange server.

The default directory for the Replay Directory (on Exchange 2010) is:

C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14TransportRolesReplay

 

The script I used to Export all messages (mails) from the Exchange Queue is:

#Suspend all messages in the queue
get-queue ExchangeServer663 | Get-Message | Suspend-Message
#Get all messages from the queue
$array = @(Get-Message -Queue "ExchangeServer663" -ResultSize unlimited)
#Export all messages from the queu
$array | ForEach-Object {$i++;Export-Message $_.Identity | AssembleMessage -Path ("E:Mailqueue"+ $i +".eml")}

Find your Queue ID (Mine was ExchangeServer663) using Get-Queue.

Reference documentation from TechNet:

• Export Messages from Queues on Exchange 2010
• Export Messages from Queues on Exchange 2013