eDiscovery searches in Exchange Online are queued indefinitely

  • Article
  • Applies to:
    Exchange Online

Original KB number:   2979630

Symptoms

You perform an eDiscovery search in the Exchange admin center in Exchange Online. However, the status of the search remains in a search has been queued state.

Cause

This problem occurs if the regional setting is English (Canada). When you filter the search by using start and end dates, the English (Canada) regional setting configures the DateFormat property to use the DD/MM/YY format. This time format is passed to the .NET Framework DateTime.TryParse method, and causes the search to fail and throw an exception.

Workaround

To work around this issue, use one of the following options:

  • Don't specify start and end dates. Instead, in the Keywords box on the Search query page, use date query terms that use the MM/DD/YY format. For example:

    Received>="06/01/2009 7:00:00 AM" AND Received<="06/01/2014 7:00:00 AM"

    Make sure that you use UTC format when you specify the time.

  • Use the Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration cmdlet to set the DateFormat property of users to the MM/DD/YY format. For more information about this cmdlet, see Set-MailboxRegionalConfiguration.

Status

It's a known issue. We're working to address this issue and will post more information in this article when it becomes available.

More information

For more info about Keyword Query Language (KQL) syntax, see Keyword Query Language (KQL) syntax reference.

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