Deleted Items are not moved after you use the Move Mailbox function

A feature of Microsoft Exchange Server is Deleted Items Retention. Users who delete their messages can recover those deleted items during the Deleted Item Retention time window set by an Exchange Server administrator.

When a user is moved from one server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 in a site to another by using the Move Mailbox function of the Exchange Server Administrator program, all the user's Inbox data is moved except for the Deleted Items.

Similarly, when a user is moved from one server that is running Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 in an Admin Group to another by using the Move Mailbox function in the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, all the user's Inbox data is moved except for the Deleted Items.

When a user deletes a message from his or her Deleted Items folder, and Deleted Item Retention is turned on, the message will be 'soft deleted.' This means that it is basically hidden, but still resides in the user's server mailbox until the retention period is up.

When a mailbox is moved, the retained Deleted Items cannot be moved, and are simply 'hard-deleted' during the next Exchange Server information store maintenance period.

It is recommended that Exchange Server administrators who use this feature send a note to their users prior to moving a mailbox so that users can look at the retained deleted items, and recover anything they feel they may want. Some users may choose to recover all the retained items, go through the move, and then delete them again after they are on the new server. This method will result in no loss of functionality.