Office 365 unable to access mailbox

[chris11256]

Hi All,

 

One of our new students mailboxes hasn't worked since it was created last month. When logging in she gets this error

'Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.DatabaseNotFoundException', this is regardless of device used to access email.

 

I do have an open support case with Microsoft, but I'm getting almost no meaningful response. So in the meantime is anyone where of anything I can do on my end? I've tried removing licenses and adding again after 24 hours but the same thing still happens.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by chris11256

[3s-gtech]

Hi All,

 

One of our new students mailboxes hasn't worked since it was created last month. When logging in she gets this error

'Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.DatabaseNotFoundException', this is regardless of device used to access email.

 

I do have an open support case with Microsoft, but I'm getting almost no meaningful response. So in the meantime is anyone where of anything I can do on my end? I've tried removing licenses and adding again after 24 hours but the same thing still happens.

 

 

 

Has the user got any odd attributes in AD that are syncing across? There’s so e that can affect mailbox creation - typically where they clash with old onsite Exchange settings.

[Steve21]

We’ve had a student who keeps saying they get this (only at home) and it turned out it seems to be restrictions on a NHS staff laptop that was causing issues

 

Opening it in Incognito worked fine, so might be worth a shot if it’s only at home rather than on-site to see if it’s something be blocked on their settings

 

Steve

[chris11256]

No odd AD attributes, it's a standard Salamander generated user account.

 

I've tested the problem myself(the students password is still what was generated for her), so I've tested it from my office PC and my home iMac with the same thing happening.

[Steve21]

If you add yourself as admin access on that account can you open it from your account? (Like in owa open mailbox etc)

 

Steve

[chris11256]

If you add yourself as admin access on that account can you open it from your account? (Like in owa open mailbox etc)

 

Steve

 

Just tested and I can't get into the mailbox. It does though give different errors. err: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.WrongServerException and emsg: ErrorMailboxFailoverWithoutRedirection.

[Roberto]

Check account is correctly licenced in the O365 admin console. If you sign in as the user, do other O365 functions work?

 

Go to the Exchange Online admin console and search for the mailbox. Look for obvious differences with a working student account. Can you open account properties once you’ve found the account?

[chris11256]

The user can indeed access all other office 365 functions, it's just email that doesn't. All users are licensed via AD Group, which this users is a member of.

 

Besides the username there's no difference between this account and another that was created in this intake. The exchange properties also opens normally.

Edited September 12, 2021 by chris11256

[chaplic]

Assuming there's no validation errors for that user You see validation errors for users in the Office 365 portal or in the Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell (microsoft.com) I think your best route here is to firmly but politely insist the case is escalated to the next tier of support. This looks like a backend error, is repeatable and I don't see the possibility of any local infrastructure causing this.

 

If you want to give service to the user, given its a new account I'd be tempted to nuke the account completely (say give it a new ms-ds-consisntecyguid if the local AD account is plumbed into stuff) and start from fresh

[Oaktech]

Humour me... Check opening it in Edge vs Chrome and vice versa. I have one member of staff where they get that error in Chrome, but it works fine in Edge. Your guess is as good as mine why, but MS are blaming something local and the workaround is as close to a fix as I'm going to get.

[chris11256]

Edge does give a different error 'Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionMailboxInTransit'. I'm going to send a chasing email to Microsoft.

[DaveTheTech]

MAPI excemptions....Check to see what mail apps are allowed.

If all are ticked, toggle them off and back on.

 

I got a similar error when playing around with hiding access to the mailbox.

[psydii]

I mean, those errors sound like the mailbox has got lost while being migrated between databases. Might be a hardware failure in ExchangeOnline damaged the mailbox and preventing it from moving properly before they decommissioned the database hosting it..... unless by some chance you mailboxes get created in on prem exchange and then migrated to the cloud?

 

How long have you had the ticket open with MS?

[chris11256]

Since the 2nd, they did another remote session today. Confirming ineed that when you login to the users account email doesn't work. Although they did grab some logs and he says he'll get back to me by tomorrow morning.

 

We don't have any on prem exchange, this account has only ever existed online.

Edited September 13, 2021 by chris11256

[psydii]

Give them until tomorrow, then start to ask for escalation - nearly two weeks is not acceptable. I suspect the mailbox is toast and needs to be recreated. It might help them if you made them aware that there was no critical mail in the mailbox - but it is critical that the user now gets access to mail in general.

[Roberto]

I would probably destroy and re-create the mailbox at this point. The Microsoft.Mapi.MapiExceptionMailboxInTransit error is an internal exchange error and makes it pretty clear something has fallen between the cracks.

 

You can probably remove it via o365/exchange online powershell by removing the o365 licence (or at least the mailbox component) from the user .with something like

Disable-mailbox -IgnoreLegalHold -PermanentlyDisable

 

Obviously don’t do this if you’re not comfortable with powershell.

[chris11256]

Thought I'd update on this, the mailbox randomly started working again just as Microsoft support asked for more logs(despite me having already ran their logging tool).

 

So no idea whether they actually fixed the problem or it's a matter of luck. The support engineer said they hadn't done anything.