Import and Export PST to and from mailboxes on Exchange Server 2016

I’ve noticed many of my clients and colleagues have asked the question how to export and import PSTs from mailboxes on Exchange Server 2016 so I thought I’d write this quick blog post to demonstrate a quick way to do it.

Most Exchange administrators are probably familiar with cmdlets such as New-MailboxExportRequest as shown in the following TechNet library:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607299(v=exchg.160).aspx

Those who prefer not to use PowerShell cmdlets can actually use the EAC (Exchange Admin Center) to perform the import and export options as well.  To enable this, the first item to do is grant the Mailbox Import Export role to the group that the account you’ll be performing the import/export action with.  For the purpose of this example, I’ll be granting the Organization Management group the permission.

Navigate to permissions –> admin roles

Open up the properties of the group you would like to assign the Mailbox Import Export permissions.

Navigate down to the Roles window and locate the Mailbox Import Export role:

Add the role:

Save the changes:

If you are testing with the account that you are logged in with, log out of the EAC and back in then navigate to recipients –> mailboxes, right click on a user’s mailbox and you should now see the options:

• Import PST
• Export to a PST file