What is the requirement for filtering emails from an Exchange server?

Organizations using Exchange servers for communication often find the requirement to archive and extract emails for various reasons. For instance, there might arise a need to export all emails from EDB to PST from a specific date range for legal and compliance reasons. Many times there is also a need to export the mailboxes and emails of employees who are no longer in the company. Another reason for the selective export is to move mailboxes to another Exchange (2016 or 2019) and leave behind the mail items that are no longer required. Exporting all the mailboxes in such situations does not make any sense. Considering many user queries carefully, let us look at two such methods of exporting Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013 and 2010 mailboxes for a specific date range to PST.

How to export an Exchange mailbox to PST for a Specific Date Range?

To export Exchange mailboxes to PST within a specific date range, run the New-MailboxExportRequest -ContentFilter PowerShell cmdlet on the Exchange management shell (EMS) or configure your online account on Outlook and use the Advanced Date filter for Sent and Received emails.

1. Export Exchange mailboxes to PST by Date Range using PowerShell commands

   • Step 1: Create a Shared Network folder on your computer and copy the Network path
   • Step 2: Launch the EMS on your computer as a system administrator
   • Step 3: Run the New-MailboxExport request PowerShell cmdlet to filter your emails
     
     Command: Copy & Paste it on PowerShell

     New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox stevesmith@yourdomain.com -ContentFilter {(Received -gt '04/05/2022') -and (Received -lt '04/06/2022') -or (Sent -gt '01/02/2022') -and (Sent -lt '01/06/2022')} -Filepath "\\Network Location\Export folder\backup.pst

     Note: The above command exports both sent and received emails using an OR filter from Steve Smith’s mailbox. The received emails are exported in the Date Range from May 4th, 2022 to June 4th, 2022 and the Sent emails are exported in the Date Range from February 1st, 2022 to June 1st, 2022 and finally saved in the specified network location path as backup.pst file.

   • Step 4: To export multiple mailboxes, create a CSV file and use a Foreach loop in the cmdlet
     
     Command: Copy & Paste it on PowerShell

     $mailboxes = Get-Content "C:\Users\admin\Desktop\export_file.csv” foreach ($mailbox in ($mailboxes)) {New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox $mailbox -ContentFilter {(Received -gt '04/05/2022') -and (Received -lt '04/06/2022') -or (Sent -gt '01/02/2022') -and (Sent -lt '01/06/2022')} -Filepath "\\Network Location\Export folder\$($mailbox).pst" }

   • Step 5: Execute the cmdlet Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics to verify the status of the export.
   • Step 6: Finally stop and remove the export request with the cmdlet Remove-MailboxExportRequest.

   Limitations of using the PowerShell method of exporting Exchange mailboxes

   1. Thorough knowledge and expertise of running the PowerShell commands is required.
   2. This method fails to export mailboxes if the Exchange EDB file is corrupted.
   3. The PowerShell method of filtering emails may not work on all Exchange server versions.
   4. Cannot recover the Exchange database file from Jet Error corruptions
   5. Additional options such as exporting specific folders or based on other rules and conditions is not possible.
   6. The operation requires export permissions and access to a Shared Network folder on your computer.
   7. Not a very user friendly approach of exporting emails based on date range.
   8. Difficult and time-consuming export method when your mailboxes are very large or oversized.

2. Export mailboxes to PST by Date Range in Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013 and 2010 using EdbMails

   Exporting mailboxes to PST by Date Range in Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013 and 2010 is possible with EdbMails EDB to PST converter software which includes built-in filters for selecting emails based on Date, Sender and Recipient Address, Attachments, Cc, Bcc etc.

   Steps to export mailbox to PST by Date Range in Exchange 2019, 2016, 2013 and 2010

   • Step 1: Download EdbMails EDB converter software

     Download and install the software setup on your computer.

     See EdbMails system requirements for Exchange recovery and EDB export.

     Click ‘Start Your Free Trial’ and select EDB to PST. EDB to Office 365. EDB to Exchange to proceed.

     and install EdbMails software setup

     

      See EdbMails system requirements for Exchange recovery and EDB export.

     Click 'Start Your Free Trial' and select 'EDB to PST. EDB to Office 365. EDB to Exchange' to proceed.

     

   • Step 2: Select the Exchange EDB file that you want to export by specific date EdbMails can convert offline Exchange EDB files to PST and filter mail items without requiring connection to Exchange server or Active Directory. It can also recover emails from a dismounted Exchange database and convert STM, pub.edb and priv.edb files from Exchange 2000 and 2003.

     

   • Step 3: Filter your emails with EdbMails advanced filters EdbMails recovers your mailboxes, mail items and folders and displays them in the left pane. You can select specific items and preview them before export. For filtering email items based on the Date, click ‘Settings’. Select the option Include/Exclude filters for export and migration.

     EdbMails comes with built-in filter settings to help you export mail based on various email rules such as Date, Subject, Attachment, Sender Address, Recipient Address, and conditions such as logical AND, OR.

     

   • Step 4: Click on the Date tab and select the ‘After’ and ‘Before’ Date Range Select the from date and the to date from the date picker to export all your emails between these two intervals. You can select other options in the settings such as excluding emails greater than a specified size and splitting the EDB file into smaller target PST files. Save the settings and click ‘Export to Outlook PST’ to start the export operation.EdbMails can also help you perform Exchange migration if you want to transfer all your emails directly to Live Exchange.

     

   • Step 5: Start exporting the Exchange emails to PST based on the date range Verify the mailboxes and folders that you have selected and give a name to the export operation. EdbMails displays a progress window where you can pause and resume the export and see the summary of the entire operation from the View Log.

     

Benefits and Features of EdbMails EDB recovery and migration software

One of the advantages of using EdbMails to export Exchange mailboxes is that you can easily recover dismounted, damaged, offline and corrupted EDB files. You can open the EDB file, view all the mailboxes, preview specific mailbox items and convert them to PST.

1. EdbMails has a graphical user interface that allows you to select and export Exchange mailboxes to Outlook PST.
2. You can filter mail items based on multiple conditions using the logical filters.
3. The application is compatible with Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and XP and all Windows server versions.
4. A highly practical feature of the application is that it also allows you to directly migrate EDB to another Exchange server, Hosted Exchange, Microsoft Office 365 or save items to HTML, EML and MHT formats.
5. EdbMails can recover deleted, dismounted mailboxes and recover the EDB without log files.
6. With EdbMails you can not only export user mailboxes but also export Exchange Public folders to Outlook PST and Archive mailboxes to PST.
7. Preserves the exact folder structure and hierarchy of the old mailboxes when it is extracted into a new PST file.