PST Import- hints for troubleshooting most common scenarios

  • Article

The PST import feature in Office 365 is getting quite popular and proves to be useful in numerous situations. We’ve created this article to help you better troubleshoot most PST import failures scenarios.

We highly recommend you scan each PST before uploading or shipping it, in order to avoid any import failure due to corrupted PST.

Below you’ll find a set of the most useful commands:

  1. Commands used to gather data on exisitng or finished PST imports

Get-MailboxImportRequest |fl (without filters)

Get-MailboxImportRequest | fl name, mailbox, status

Get-MailboxImportRequest -status InProgress| fl mailbox, batchname, requestGUID

Get-MailboxImportRequest -status Failed | fl mailbox, batchname, requestGUID

  1. For getting more details about a certain import, you can run the below:

Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics -identity "NAMEOFIMPORT\GUID" |fl (taken from the output of the above commands)

  1. Also in case you want to know what items are skipped you can use the below PowerShell command

Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics <RequestGUID>-IncludeReport | fl 

 

Now, here are some of the most common scenarios with a short explanation and some hints for troubleshooting:

  1. Issue: Imports failing at 0%

Error: „import failing to initiate”

Error: The same applies for archive ; "The operation couldn't be performed because 'archive@contoso.com’ matches multiple entries."

Resolution: Solution is to use in the CSV mapping file unique identifiers for the target mailboxes such as their ExchangeGUIDs instead of the users primary SMTP address.

Explanation: This is due to Soft-Delete mailboxes/mailusers conflicting with the active mailboxes of the target users, when resolving their primary SMTP address.

 

  1. Issue: When a job is created with the same name than a deleted job, there is an error

Error: „Job with the same name already exist”.

Resolution: Use unique jobs names for PST imports.

Explanation: For the time being, the job names must be unique, however in the future, this restriction should be lifted.

 

  1. Issue: No specific error received, however you notice data difference between the data actually imported and the data that was supposed to be imported (from the intiial PST file)

Error: n/a

Resolution:

Run Get-MailboxImportRequestStatistics  -identity "Name of Import\GUID |fl

Check the following:

EstimatedTransferSize                  : 1.211 GB (1,300,827,963 bytes)

BytesTransferred                       : 64.36 MB (67,487,118 bytes

Explanation: it seems that some of the items were already in the target mailbox at the moment of the import, so in order not to create duplicates, those items were skipped.

 

  1. Issue: Open the completed job, but no details are listed. The files portion of the screen is blank.

Error: n/a

Resolution: Check the date of the last import.

Explanation: Job Completed on Aug 30, last PST was uploaded before June 29, when job started. Right after job Completed, on Aug 30, we passed the 60 days since last PST upload and the storage account got cleaned up.

We've released recently an auto-cleanup feature with 60 days retention expiry, that we have documented here.

 

  1. Issue: Unable to validate csv mapping files during PST import.

Error: "The specified file <path to pst file in blob> could not be found. Please ensure that the path to the file is correct."

Resolution: Check the file path in the CSV mapping file.

Explanation: This may be due to file pathes not having the same case : In the mapping file, we have this path "/test/OutlookPST/IMPORT/batchA", but the file is located in the Azure Storage account at this path: "/test/OutlookPST/import/BatchA". If you face that issue use ”/test/OutlookPST/import/BatchA” in the CSV mapping file instead.

 

  1. Issue: Mailbox located in the on premises, archive located in Cloud. Trying to import a PST Error: "Please create primary and archive mailbox and create a new job".

Resolution: In your local AD, make sure the attribute msExchArchiveStatus is populated with value 1. If you are using AAD, make sure the following options are selected: exchange hybrid deployment and the write back option selected.

This article provides the list of attributes that might be affected if the above 2 options are not selected.

Explanation: Archive is not detected if the above are not set correctly.