Trying to migrate from Exchange 2016 to O365 - Archive Mailbox Issue - already has an archive mailbox

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RichardPUK-5796 asked Aug 5, '20 amraj commented Apr 7, '21

Trying to migrate from Exchange 2016 to O365 - Archive Mailbox Issue - already has an archive mailbox

Hi,

First post here so hope its in right place.

I have inherited an Exchange 2016 - O365 migration 5th of the way through. Currently running in hybrid mode and using AAD connect for syncronising AD etc.

I have been able to sync a lot of mailboxes up ready for final moves and quite a few are fully live, however there are some (and typically the ones I need to do ASAP) which wont sync. After setting a migration off, I get after a short period status of failed with "You must specify the PrimaryOnly parameter. Target user ‎already has an archive mailbox." as the error.

I have gone through some things online, however they havent made a difference.

Rather than just finding things online, I am hoping someone would be able to help with a little more of a process of things to check so I dont go off a tangent and screw something up.

Hope I have given enough information, if not let me know.

THanks.

office-exchange-online-itpro

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AndyDavid · Aug 05, 2020 at 02:15 PM

For those mailboxes with archives already in Exchange Online, did you create the moves/migrations with the -PrimaryOnly switch? Thats required if they archive is already there.

Can you clarify what you mean by "I have gone through some things online, however they havent made a difference."

What things have you already done?

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joyceshen-MSFT · Aug 12, 2020 at 06:53 AM

Any update about your issue? Do suggestions below help?

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joyceshen-MSFT · Aug 28, 2020 at 07:24 AM

Hi, any further information?

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amraj · Apr 07, 2021 at 08:46 PM

Was just encountering the same issue , was searching for this online with no results.
Finally Tried this based on my identity understanding worked like a charm.

Error: Failed to sync the ArchiveGuid 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 of mailbox 000000000-0000-0000-0000-433de89ace17 because one cloud archive 000000000-0000-0000-0000-8a53c0124cdf exists.
![85453-error1.png][1]

"Caution: Please make a backup of any of your mailbox data or configuration to avoid any possible loss"

Causes:
Scenario 1- You were trying to migrate on-premise mailbox archive only to cloud and the move request failed but cloud Archive GUID generated.
Scenario 2- You were trying to migrate on-premise mailbox however the error was generated(which is likely not possible without any manual errors prior to move request)(license to on-premise user was directly assigned on cloud and then removed)

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amraj amraj · Apr 07, 2021 at 08:49 PM

In both the scenarios the user/shared mailbox account was provisioned with a Archive GUID which now is causing issue with move request.

Symptoms:
Run Get-Mailbox user@contoso.com | FL (Exchange Server)
Archive GUID- On-Premise archive mailbox GUID, Archive State- Local

Run Get-MailUser user@contoso.com | FL (EXO command)
Verify the below:
DisabledArchiveGuid- will either hold the on-premise archive mailbox GUID or 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
ArchiveGuid- value is different from the on-premise archive mailbox GUID,

View the user account on AD
Attribute Editor>
msExchArchiveStatus is set to 1
msExchDisabledArchiveGUID holds the value of Cloud Archive mailbox

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amraj amraj · Apr 07, 2021 at 08:49 PM

If you try to manually edit the attributes, they would go back to the same after Directory sync .
If you try to use.
Set-MailUser -Identity user@contoso.com -ArchiveGuid to on-premise archive GUID (EXO command) (Fails)
Error: The existing user already has an archive, modification is not allowed.
Disable-RemoteMailbox user@contoso.com -Archive ( to be honest, did exactly nothing) (Exchange Server )

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Show more comments

Answer 1 · 2020-08-05T14:27:27.433Z

RichardPUK-5796 answered Aug 5, '20 AndyDavid commented Feb 6, '21

They were moved through the ECP and they would have already had archive mailboxes. When I did mine, I an an on premise archive mailbox and it just did it.

Unfortunately the person who did some things is no longer with the company.

I have removed the archive from within ECP, have tried some commands I found such as Disable-RemoteMailbox email@address -Archive, etc. Overall tried alot of things, but I really just want to start from fresh of things to try in a logical order. There are a couple of things I have come across, but they may be a bit destructive, the user has Teams running etc so dont want to damage that, not unless its ultimately neccessary.

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AndyDavid · Aug 05, 2020 at 04:02 PM

Ok, I'm still not clear what the issue is here.
Are you saying you are unable to remove the archive in Office 365? Or something else.

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RichardPUK-5796 AndyDavid · Aug 06, 2020 at 08:31 AM

When I try to move a users mailbox it errors saying a mailbox already exists. I will try Joyceshens idea below. :-)

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Answer 2 · 2020-08-06T06:01:40.937Z

joyceshen-MSFT answered Aug 6, '20 RichardPUK-5796 commented Aug 6, '20

As Andy suggested above, have you tried using the command like below to test the result again?

  New-MoveRequest -Identity <user@contoso.com> -RemoteCredential (Get-Credential) -Remote -RemoteHostName 'on-premises mrsproxy url' -BatchName <Name of Batch> -PrimaryOnly -TargetDeliveryDomain <mail.onmicrosoft.com domain>

You may also refer to below related links discussed the issue about archive mailbox

"You must specify the PrimaryOnly parameter" error when you try to move a primary mailbox to Exchange Online in a hybrid deployment

Archive mailbox issues for a mailbox that's migrated to or from Office 365

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RichardPUK-5796 · Aug 06, 2020 at 08:46 AM

I haven't no as I am not powershells greatest fan. I will give it a go though.

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RichardPUK-5796 · Aug 06, 2020 at 08:56 AM

Is there a way when doing it this way to allow it to sync up, but not complete until the user and I are ready to do so?

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Answer 3 · 2020-08-06T11:23:42.937Z

AndyDavid answered Aug 6, '20 joyceshen-MSFT commented Aug 19, '20

@RichardPUK-5796

You can set the move request to suspend after you create it. Remember, this is run from Exchange Online Powershell. not on-prem

So if the move request was named user@domain.com

After you create it,
run:
set-moverequest user@domain.com -SuspendWhenReadyToComplete

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/set-moverequest?view=exchange-ps

Then when ready to complete it:
Resume-MoveRequest user@domain.com

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/exchange/resume-moverequest?view=exchange-ps

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RichardPUK-5796 · Aug 06, 2020 at 02:36 PM

Sweet. I will give it a go. Thanks for help so far.

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joyceshen-MSFT RichardPUK-5796 · Aug 19, 2020 at 08:26 AM

Any progress so far?

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Answer 4 · 2021-02-06T02:07:48.21Z

NeilMcIntyre-6334 answered Feb 6, '21

JoyceShen's answer looks good, as it creates a migration request that ignores whether the on-prem mailbox already has an archive mailbox in the cloud.

I encountered this issue recently, and i believe it relates to a tenant change that we previously did

the ECP migration paths are : migrate primary & archive, or migrate archive only - assuming that archives are on-prem.

however, the first path is the one you need to choose as your goal is to migrate the primary mailbox. The problem (for me anyway) was that the on-prem box was flagged somewhere in exchange on-prem attributes as 'has an archive' from a previous hybrid tenant environment. So when the migration starts, it immediately stops because the migration includes archives but one 'supposedly' exists.

Manually doing -primaryonly essentially shortcuts this check, but I would like to know what is flagged on the on-prem mailbox so that I can clear it as the on-prem mailboxes in question never had an EOL archive provisioned in the current tenant.

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