Admin Mailbox Cleanup Deletes Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Journal, and Tasks

This problem occurs when you use Mailbox Cleanup in the Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator program. Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Journal, and Task information in Outlook is deleted.

This problem can occur because the Outlook client program stores Contact and Calendar information as message files. The Clean Mailbox functionality of the Administrator program cannot differentiate between Outlook's special folder messages and normal mail messages. It will clean ALL messages, based on message size or message age only.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0.

This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.0. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces): Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. Service Pack for Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces): Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server version 4.0. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

In the Administrator program in Microsoft Exchange Server versions 5.0 and 5.5, you cannot specify from which folders messages meeting the selected criteria will be deleted. With the fixes described in this article, the Tools/Clean Mailbox feature has been extended to include the check box Only delete mail messages. With this box selected(default), the Clean Mailbox feature will not remove Outlook special folders. If this box is unchecked, Clean Mailbox will clean all messages that fit the age criteria, including Calendar appointments, Contacts, and so on.