LAN-Tech Network Management

The Mailbox has been Quarantined

I recently came a cross issue with an Exchange server running out of room and after the cleanup, one user only, would receive the message; “Cannot open your default e-mail folders.  Microsoft Exchange is not available.  Either there are network problems or the Exchange server is down for maintenance.”

The same user could also not log into Outlook Web Access.  After verifying DNS was working correctly, and then reviewing the server’s Event Viewer Application  logs at the time of the failure, a MSExchangeIS error with Sevent ID 10018 was noted.  “The mailbox for user 10c98e9d-1bcb-441c-a5bc-1a3fa19336f8: /o=First Organization/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=John Doe has been quarantined. Access to this mailbox will be restricted to administrative logons for the next 6 hours.”

The Microsoft articles listed below reference this issue and how to resolve.  Assuming there is no corruption with the mailbox you can verify there is a quarantined mailbox by viewing and simply deleting the registry key under:  HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesMSExchangeIS<Server Name>Private-{db guid}QuarantinedMailboxes

I recommend, as always, backing up the registry before doing so.  Then to apply the change restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2603736

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/bb331958.aspx#SH