Recovering a Mailbox from the Archive Database (Hoth)

If you have a user who can’t access a mailbox, there’s a possibility it’s sat in Hoth, which is an archive mailbox database and isn’t accessible to users. This needs to be recovered, which we will do as follows:

Connect to the Exchange Admin Centre (https://mail.trafford.gov.uk/ecp/?ExchClientVer=15)
Search for the mailbox in question. In this example, we’re looking for the mailbox FFCentral
Double-click the entry in the list you want to look at. This will open the properties window. Click on More Options…
The Mailbox Database field shows where this mailbox is located. As you can see, this one is indeed in Hoth and needs to be moved
Click Cancel to close this window
Now, under Move Mailbox, click on To another database

No link? Please skip to the section at the end of this document, then come back here!
In the Local Mailbox Move , simply enter the name for the migration batch. The recommendation is to use the name of the mailbox and include the phrase (Recover from Hoth), so that we can see at a glance what is being moved and why. Leave everything else as is and click Next
on the next page, click Browse
Select the member who you want to notify and click Add. This process can be repeated. In this instance, you will probably include yourself, so you get an email update on progress and/or completion. Please make sure to include Lee Dodgson and exclude Exchange-Admin (using the remove link next to the name, as per below). Click OK when done
Click New. You’ll be asked if you want to go to the migration dashboard. You don’t have to
The mailbox is now moving
Because you added yourself in the move reporting, you will get a daily update if the copy takes longer to complete, and at some point a message to say when it’s done

But Lee, there’s no link to move the database in step 6! What do I do??

Easy peasy! From Recipients (where you probably already are) select Migration

Click the + icon, then select Move to a different database

Check that Select the users that you want to move is selected, then click the + icon

Search for the item you want, select it, and then click add ->

Click Next, then carry on from step 7 above