Emails are not moving to Archive Mailbox

In this blog post, I will show you how to fix an issue when emails are not moving to archive mailbox in exchange online. I recently created a mailbox retention policy and applied it to all Exchange Online users. The policy is working for most users, but for a few, messages aren’t moving from the primary mailbox to their archive mailbox.

After investigating, we found that a retention hold was enabled on those mailboxes; as a result, the Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) prevented messages from moving to the archive mailbox. Follow the steps in this blog post to check and update the retention hold status for affected users to resolve the problem. If it still does not fix your issue, you can use any of the other troubleshooting steps given in this post.

Placing a mailbox on retention hold suspends the processing of an MRM retention policy by the Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) for that mailbox. Retention hold is designed for situations such as a user being on vacation or away temporarily.

About retention hold

Install and Connect to Exchange Online

Install and Import Exchange Online PowerShell Module (More Information)

Install-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

Connect to Exchange Online

$UserCredential = Get-Credential
Connect-ExchangeOnline -Credential $UserCredential -ShowProgress $true

1. Check and Update Retention Hold Status

Check user’s retention hold status and update it if needed. In the commands below, replace the placeholder email address with the user’s actual email address.

Check RetentionHoldEnabled status

Get-Mailbox "email address" | Select RetentionHoldEnabled

If RetentionHoldEnabled is true, then change it to false

Set-Mailbox "email address" -RetentionHoldEnabled $false

Check the Retention Policy and Retention Hold Value for all Mailboxes

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize unlimited | Where-Object {$_.RetentionHoldEnabled -eq $true} | Format-Table Name,RetentionPolicy,RetentionHoldEnabled -Auto

Retention hold is usually the reason for emails not moving to archive mailbox. However, there could be other basic reasons, like archive mailbox is full or deleted, retention policy issue etc. Let’s investigate it further.

2. Check Archive Mailbox Exists and not Full

Check if Archive Mailbox is Full

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | 
  Select DisplayName,ArchiveStatus,ArchiveQuota,ArchiveWarningQuota |
  Format-Table -Auto

3. Check if retention policy with an Archive tag is assigned

Ensure there’s a Default Policy Tag (DPT) or personal/folder tag with RetentionAction = MoveToArchive and RetentionEnabled = True. Before executing the commands, replace the variable placeholders with actual user.

Check retention policy

Get-Mailbox <user@domain> | fl RetentionPolicy

Get-RetentionPolicy "<policy name>" | fl Name,RetentionPolicyTagLinks

Get-RetentionPolicyTag | ? {$_.Type -in 'All','Archive'} |
  ft Name,Type,AgeLimitForRetention,RetentionAction,RetentionEnabled

4. Manually Kickstart Managed Folder Assistant

Kickstart MFA

Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <user>

Example:
Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity [email protected]

Impact of Turning Off Retention Hold

Turning off RetentionHold lets Exchange’s Managed Folder Assistant (MFA) resume acting on items in user-visible folders (move/delete per MRM tags). It does not disable Microsoft Purview (Compliance Center) features. You can still run eDiscovery and place/maintain Litigation Hold or eDiscovery holds exactly as before.

What RetentionHold does

• When ON:
  MFA keeps stamping retention tags/labels, but does not expire or move items in user folders. It continues to process the Recoverable Items subtree. This is meant for scenarios like a user on leave; it’s not a compliance hold.
• When OFF:
  MFA resumes normal processing (archive/move/delete) in user folders according to your MRM tags and/or Purview retention settings.

eDiscovery & legal hold after turning RetentionHold off

• Still fully available and unaffected. For preservation, use Litigation Hold, an eDiscovery (case) hold, or a Purview retention policy/label configured to retain. These are independent of RetentionHold.

Note: When removing an actual compliance hold (Litigation/eDiscovery/Purview hold), Exchange applies a 30-day delay hold before purging can occur. This delay-hold concept does not apply to toggling RetentionHold.

Important nuance: labels vs. archive

• Purview retention labels do not move items to the Online Archive.
• Only Exchange MRM retention tags support the Move to Archive action. If your goal is auto-archiving, ensure the mailbox’s MRM policy includes a tag with MoveToArchive.

Quick health checks (PowerShell)

Get-Mailbox <user@domain> | fl `
  RetentionHoldEnabled,ElcProcessingDisabled,RetentionPolicy, `
  InPlaceHolds,LitigationHoldEnabled,ComplianceTagHoldApplied

# If needed, re-enable processing and kick MFA:
Set-Mailbox <user@domain> -RetentionHoldEnabled:$false
Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <user@domain>

ElcProcessingDisabled should be False; if True, MFA won’t process anything. If ElcProcessingDisabled is false, fix it using below PowerShell commands.

ElcProcessingDisabled Fix

# Check a single mailbox
Get-Mailbox <user@domain> | fl ElcProcessingDisabled

# Find all mailboxes with MFA disabled
Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter "ElcProcessingDisabled -eq $true" |
  Select DisplayName,PrimarySmtpAddress

# Re-enable MFA processing for a mailbox
Set-Mailbox <user@domain> -ElcProcessingDisabled:$false

# (Optional) Nudge MFA to run asap
Start-ManagedFolderAssistant -Identity <user@domain>

Concluding

• Turning off RetentionHold has no negative impact on Compliance Center capabilities.
• Use Litigation/eDiscovery holds or Purview retention policies/labels for preservation; use MRM tags if you want Move to Archive behavior.

Litigation Hold

Although litigation hold is not a reason for emails not moving to archive mailbox error. It’s related information to understand about a mailbox. For legal or compliance purposes, you can place a user’s mailbox on hold. This preserves mailbox content in the Purges folder even if the user deletes items.

Get the list of all the users where Litigation Hold is enabled

get-mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited | Where-object {$_.LitigationHoldenabled -eq $true} | Select Name, LitigationHoldEnabled,Litigationholdduration

Set the Litigation hold on a user mailbox for 7 Years

set-mailbox "email address" -LitigationHoldEnabled $true -LitigationHoldDuration 2556

Enable the Litigation hold on All the User Mailboxes and Set the Duration to 7 years.

Get-Mailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -Filter "RecipientTypeDetails -eq 'UserMailbox'" | Set-Mailbox -LitigationHoldEnabled $true -LitigationHoldDuration 2556