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Exporting PSTs and Setting Up External Forwarding | Lazy Admin Blog

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As a “Lazy Admin,” I like to keep my cheat sheets handy so I don’t have to look up the same syntax every time a request comes in. Today’s snippets cover exporting mailboxes to PST and the “correct” way to forward mail to an external address.

1. Exporting Mailboxes to PST

Whether you are decommissioning a user or just taking a backup, New-MailboxExportRequest is your best friend.

Note: Ensure your Exchange Trusted Subsystem has read/write permissions on the network share before running these.

Export a Standard Mailbox:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox "Mailbox Name" -FilePath \\Sharelocation\Export.pst -DomainController DC_FQDN

Export a Mailbox Archive:

If the user has an In-Place Archive enabled, use the -IsArchive switch:

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox "Mailbox Name" -IsArchive -FilePath \\Sharelocation\Archive.pst -DomainController DC_FQDN

2. Reconnecting a Disconnected Mailbox

If you have a disconnected mailbox that needs to be linked to a user account:

Connect-Mailbox -Identity "Mailbox Name" -Database DBName -User "UserName"

3. Forwarding Mail Externally (The Right Way)

To forward mail to an external address (like a Gmail or Outlook account), you shouldn’t just type an address into a transport rule. The cleanest way is to create a Mail Contact.

Step A: Create the Contact

  1. Login to Exchange Admin Center > Recipients > Contacts.
  2. Click Add > Mail Contact.
  3. Give it a sensible name.

Pro Tip: If you don’t want this contact cluttering up your Global Address List (GAL), hide it with PowerShell:

Set-MailContact "ALIAS-NAME" -HiddenFromAddressListsEnabled $true

Step B: Enable Forwarding via GUI

  1. Go to Recipients > Mailboxes.
  2. Locate the user you want to forward from and click Edit.
  3. Go to Mailbox Features > Scroll down to Mail Flow > View Details.
  4. Check Enable Forwarding.
  5. Browse and select the Contact you created in Step A.
  6. Optional: Check “Deliver message to both forwarding address and mailbox” if you want a copy kept in the original inbox.

Step C: Enable Forwarding via PowerShell (The Lazy Way)

If you don’t want to click through the GUI, just run this:

Set-Mailbox -Identity "Internal User" -ForwardingAddress "ExternalContactAlias" -DeliverToMailboxAndForward $true

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