SMTP error when trying to create a mailbox (solution)

Question

_{Tuesday, October 31, 2017 1:52 PM}

I ran across a problem recently when trying to create a mailbox for an existing AD user.  A web search for a solution yielded nothing, but I was able to see and correct the problem in AD.  I thought I would post this in case someone else ran across this problem.

When attempting to create a mailbox for an existing AD user, whether using EAC or running Enable-Mailbox in the shell, I received the following error:

The address 'smtp:@mycorp.com' is invalid: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: The address '@mycorp.com' is not a valid SMTP address.
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Enable-Mailbox], DataValidationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : [Server=EXCHSERV01,RequestId=d59b6eb6-9b9a-4e3e-84fb-fa213cc50895,TimeStamp=10/26/2017 2:28:52 PM] [FailureCategory=Cmdlet-DataValidationExcept
   ion] 7BF0A0EB,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.EnableMailbox

In ADSI Edit, I looked under "Default naming context" and navigated down to the user's AD object.  I opened the properties of this object (right-click, "Properties") and scrolled down to the attribute named "proxyAddresses".  This attribute was set to the erroneous value "smtp:; SMTP:@mycorp.com".  I highlighted this attribute, clicked the edit button, removed this invalid value, and clicked OK.  I was then able to create the mailbox normally.

All replies (3)

_{Tuesday, October 31, 2017 10:27 PM | 1 vote}

Hi,

The error is missing something like smtp:<firstname>.<lastname>@mycorp.com. Check your email address policy how it is setup and see what is the email address format.

_{Wednesday, November 1, 2017 8:52 AM}

I ran across a problem recently when trying to create a mailbox for an existing AD user.  A web search for a solution yielded nothing, but I was able to see and correct the problem in AD.  I thought I would post this in case someone else ran across this problem.

When attempting to create a mailbox for an existing AD user, whether using EAC or running Enable-Mailbox in the shell, I received the following error:

The address 'smtp:@mycorp.com' is invalid: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: The address '@mycorp.com' is not a valid SMTP address.
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Enable-Mailbox], DataValidationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : [Server=EXCHSERV01,RequestId=d59b6eb6-9b9a-4e3e-84fb-fa213cc50895,TimeStamp=10/26/2017 2:28:52 PM] [FailureCategory=Cmdlet-DataValidationExcept
   ion] 7BF0A0EB,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.EnableMailbox

In ADSI Edit, I looked under "Default naming context" and navigated down to the user's AD object.  I opened the properties of this object (right-click, "Properties") and scrolled down to the attribute named "proxyAddresses".  This attribute was set to the erroneous value "smtp:; SMTP:@mycorp.com".  I highlighted this attribute, clicked the edit button, removed this invalid value, and clicked OK.  I was then able to create the mailbox normally.

Thanks for your kindly sharing!

Regards,

Jason Chao

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_{Tuesday, November 7, 2017 9:16 AM}

Thank you for your reply.

I realize that it is missing the userID portion of the email address; that is the problem in the first place.  Our address policy creates addresses properly when a user account is created with a mailbox.  This problem seems to occur when either a user account is created without a mailbox or when there's an error that causes the mailbox creation to fail.  With this erroneous and invalid SMTP address, I am then unable to manually create a mailbox until I get rid of the bogus SMTP entry in ADSI Edit.