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| Toll Free: +44 800 088 5522 Understanding Recoverable Items Folder in Exchange 2013
Till Exchange 2007, Exchange mailbox items were protected against accidental deletion through Dumpster. In Exchange 2010 and 2013, the front end of dumpster is changed to Recoverable Items Folder.
When an email is deleted from mailbox, it is first passed on to the “Deleted Items Folder”. However, if the email is shift+deleted or removed from deleted items folder, they are then passed to the “Deletions Folder” of Recoverable Items Folder. The deleted item (be it mail, calendar entry, or contact info) resides in this folder for a time period of 14 days which is known as “Retention Period”. Once this interval is passed, the item is permanently purged from deletions folder. By default, the retention period is 14 days and can be increased accordingly.
If “In-Place Hold” is enabled, then retention period is ignored and instead of deleted items being purged, they are moved to either “Discovery Hold” or “Versions” subfolder of recoverable items folder.
Introduction to Sub-Folders of Recoverable Items Folder
Deletions: Items in this folder can be called as Soft Deleted. This folder is visible to end user through “Recover Deleted Items” in MS Outlook/Outlook Web Access. Items stay in this folder until retention period expires.
Purges: A deleted item from RIF is passed to the purges folder. When deleted items bypass the configured retention period for mailbox, they are moved to purges subfolder of Recoverable Items Folder (RIF). Unlike Deletions folder, purges folder is not visible to end users.
Following Options should be enabled
Discovery Hold: If a mailbox is kept on in-place hold, the items from deleted folder are moved to this folder. When a mailbox is being processed by the mailbox assistant, the mails under this folder are checked out. A user has power to define the hold item for items in this folder and if any in-place hold query is not defined, the items will reside under his folder until the user is deleted.
Versions: When changes are done in the properties of mailbox, the original item gets saved in the versions folder of recoverable items folder until the changes get committed. The items in versions folder are also suggested in in-place eDiscovery searches.
Following Options should be enabled:
Audits: With the help of mailbox audit logging option, the owner of the mailbox can keep a track of who logged in to the mailbox. Also, an owner can assign what actions can be performed by the delegate user and by the owner himself.
Calendar Logging: The changes done to the calendar entries are logged in this folder. This folder is not available to the end user.
Understanding Terminologies:
Single Item Recovery: If items are being removed from the “Deletion” folder of RIF, the scope of recovery ends. Under such scenarios, what most of the administrators used to do until Exchange 2007 is, restore entire mailbox which is definitely a time consuming task.
In Exchange 2013, there is no need to restore backup of entire mailbox for selected items recovery. If Single Item Recovery option is enabled, then data in purges folder will not be deleted until the retention period passes away.
In-Place Hold and Litigation Hold: These options are quite helpful in preventing data from being sent into irrecoverable state. If these options are enabled, the items in purges and DiscoveryHolds cannot be deleted by Managed Folder Assistant.
Recoverable Items Mailbox Quota: There is a specified space assigned in Recoverable Items Folder where deleted items are stored. This storage space is being deducted from mailbox quota. By default, 20GB is assigned for soft deleted items and 30 GB for hard deleted items. If the default limit is cross, users would be informed about the same through following error codes:
