.Edb file is not reducing is size after deleting / downloading mails to local pst file

Question

_{Monday, April 2, 2018 2:29 PM}

Hi,

I'm noticing it that the .edb file size is not changing at all after deleting and moving mails to local .pst file. I've checked to make sure that "delete original item on archiving" is set but for some reason we're seeing no change in the Exchange file size as items are archived. Is there something obvious we're missing ? Please help understand the background process here if any.

-Atul

All replies (7)

_{Monday, April 2, 2018 3:13 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Hi,

When you remove or move the mail to different location, the database never show the space remains until you do the defragmentation of the database. During the maintenance window it will do the online defragmentation Once it completed it will show the space available.

Thanks

Syed.

Dont forget to mark as Answered if you found this post helpful.

_{Monday, April 2, 2018 9:05 PM ✅Answered | 1 vote}

Syed is correct that the DB size will never shrink after deleting data or mailboxes.  Instead the settings for the deleted items and deleted mailbox retention keep the information until the retention time has passed.  There is an online maintenance that runs each day and IF deleted data  has passed the retention period the space used by that data is released for new messaging items.

You certainly can defragment the database, however that's an offline process (mailboxes are not accessible) and can take some time to complete.  Unless you have deleted a large amount of data its usually not worth it to defragment for the reasons stated above.

Even if you have deleted a large amount of data the better option is to move all mailboxes from the existing database to a new database.  Once completed you can dial-tone the existing DB to make it small and usable immediately.   Much cleaner & faster process.  Check out this article about dial-tone although you wouldn't need to use DigiScope if you moved all mailboxes to other DB  https://support.lucid8.com/support/solutions/articles/6000167684-dial-tone-recovery

Search, Recover, Export Mailboxes, Folders, Email, Contacts, Calendars, Tasks, etc. from Offline Exchange Databases (EDBs), On-Premise Exchange Servers and Office 365. Migrate/Recover direct from any offline EDB into any On-Premises Exchange Server, even cross version i.e. 2003 → 2007 → 2010 →2013 → 2016 → Office 365 with Lucid8's DigiScope

_{Monday, April 2, 2018 9:55 PM}

Hi Atul,

The freed up space after exporting to PST becomes whitespace and <g class="gr_ gr_20 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" data-gr-id="20" id="20">wont</g> appear unless viewed via <g class="gr_ gr_19 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" data-gr-id="19" id="19">powershell</g> or eventviewer<

Your best option to reclaim the whitespace is to move mailboxes to another database and recreate the old database.

Here's a <g class="gr_ gr_54 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" data-gr-id="54" id="54">powershell</g> you can use to check the whitespace <g class="gr_ gr_67 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" data-gr-id="67" id="67">on</g> your database.

Get-mailboxdatabase <Database Name> -Status | Select AvailableNewMailboxSpace

_{Tuesday, April 3, 2018 7:11 AM}

is defragmentation process is online ? what's the interval cycle here then.

-Atul

TheAtulA

_{Tuesday, April 3, 2018 8:15 AM}

Hi Atul,

Online defragmentation is an automated defragmentation process as a part of its scheduled maintenance which we specify on a mailbox store level in ESM where the actual database size remains the same, wherein Offline defragmentation is the process we use to shrink the database size removing white spaces using the eseutil /d switch. Details see: Online and Offline Defragmentation – What it does ??

As suggested above, the recommended method to reclaim whitespace is move all mailbox from old database to other databases, after moving completed, dismount the old database and delete all data in the location of this database, or move the data to another location, then mount the old database.

You can understand "Whitespace" clearly by reading this blog:

Using PowerShell to Get Mailbox Database Size and Available New Mailbox Space

Hope this helps,

Best Regards,
Niko Cheng
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_{Wednesday, April 4, 2018 4:01 AM}

Moving data will not cause the EDB file to reduce in size automatically - it is created white space for new data to be written to.  This space will be available for new data once the retention period of the database expires as currently a soft-deleted copy of the moved mailboxes will have been left behind.

The only way to actually reduce the size of an EDB file is an offline defrag as suggested by other users also but it is not recommended as unless you have a critical need for the disk space.

http://exchangeblog.pl/en/2012/08/microsoft-exchange-2010-how-to-reduce-the-size-of-the-database/

_{Friday, April 6, 2018 1:52 AM}

Hi Atul,

I'm just writing to check how's everything going? If you have any questions or needed further help on this issue, please feel free to post back. If the issue has been resolved, please mark the helpful replies as answers, this will make answer searching in the forum easier and be beneficial to other community members as well. Thanks for your understanding.

Best Regards,
Niko Cheng
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they helped. If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

Click here to learn more. Visit the dedicated forum to share, explore and talk to experts about Microsoft Teams.