[Solved] Your Mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange Server

Summary: This guide outlines solutions to resolve the 'Your mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange server' error that appears in MS Outlook while accessing the email account. It also discusses solutions to recover mailbox items from orphaned or inaccessible Outlook data files (.OST) when the error cannot be resolved through manual workarounds.

‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange server‘ is an error message that appears when an Office 365 user tries to access the email account using Microsoft Outlook.

The entire message reads as:

‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange server. A temporary mailbox exists, but might not have all of your previous data.

You can connect to the temporary mailbox or work offline with all of your old data. If you choose to work with your old data, you cannot send or receive email messages.

Important: Do not choose to connect to the temporary mailbox. This may cause data loss.’

As clear from the error message, if you select ‘Use Temporary Mailbox,’ you may lose your old emails and mailbox items. If you select ‘Use Old Data,’ it will allow you to access your offline cached contents and work offline. However, you won’t be able to send or receive any messages.

Lastly, if you hit ‘Cancel,’ the error message will close along with Outlook. Thus, you can’t access your email account or data.

In such situations, you must be careful with your selection and research before choosing any option to avoid further issues and data loss.

In this guide, we will help you fix the issue with your Outlook account, restore mailbox connectivity, and recover all your mailbox items. But before heading to solutions, let’s have a quick look at the reasons that may lead to such errors in Outlook.

Reasons for ‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange server’ Error

There could be various reasons that may cause ‘Outlook Exchange mailbox has been temporarily moved in error.’ Some of them are:

1. Corrupt Outlook profile
2. Damaged Outlook data file (OST)
3. Antivirus or anti-malware conflicts
4. Incompatible or faulty Add-ins

Solutions to Resolve Outlook Exchange mailbox has been temporarily moved Issue

Following are a few possible solutions and workarounds to resolve the ‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange server’ error.

NOTE: Backup Outlook data file (.OST) before applying any solution. Otherwise, you may lose your offline mailbox data.

Solution #1: Delete All Outlook Profiles except Primary

If you are using your Outlook with multiple profiles, try deleting them except the primary one. The steps are as follows:

• Close MS Outlook and then open Control Panel.
• Search Mail and then double-click on Mail to open it.

• In the Mail Setup window, click Show Profiles.

• In the Mail window, choose the profile you want to remove and then click on the Remove button.

• Click ‘Yes‘ to continue if you have a backup of the Outlook data file.

• Similarly, select other profiles and remove them except the primary profile.
• After removing all profiles except primary, click ‘OK‘ to close the Mail window.
• Now start Outlook and check.

If the error message persists, follow the next method to set up a new Outlook profile and then remove the original Outlook profile.

Solution #2: Create and Use a New Outlook Profile

To create and set up a new Outlook profile, follow these steps:

• Close MS Outlook and then open Control Panel.
• Search Mail and then double-click on Mail to open it.

• In the Mail Setup window, click on Show Profiles.

• Click Add, specify the profile name, and then click OK.

• Now follow the Add Account wizard to create and set up the user’s email account. Once done, click Finish.
• Now in the Mail window, choose your original Outlook profile and then click Remove.
• A warning message is displayed. Click ‘Yes’ if you have already created Outlook data file backup.

• In the Mail window, select the new Outlook profile and then choose your Outlook profile in Always use this profile option.

• Click OK to close the Mail window.

Now open Outlook to check if the error is resolved. In case this fails to fix the problem, follow the next method.

Solution #3: Enable Cached Exchange Mode

To enable Cached Exchange Mode, follow these steps:

• Close Outlook, open Control Panel, and search Mail.
• Double-click on the Mail option to open the ‘Mail Setup‘ window.
• Click on the Email Accounts… button.

• Then select the email profile and click ‘Change‘ or double-click on the profile to open ‘Server Settings‘.

• Click the Cached Exchange Mode checkbox and then click on the Next > Finish button to enable the Cached Exchange Mode.

NOTE: If Cached Exchange Mode is already enabled, then disable it first and re-enable it.

Now open Outlook and check if it works and resolves the ‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved on Microsoft Exchange server’ error.

Solution #4: Disable Faulty and Unnecessary Add-ins

A faulty or incompatible Add-in may also cause such errors in MS Outlook. To find and remove unnecessary or faulty Add-in, follow these steps:

• Close MS Outlook.
• Press Windows + R, type Outlook.exe /safe, and hit ‘Enter‘ to open Outlook in safe mode.
• Now go to File > Options > Add-ins.

• Select ‘COM Add-ins‘ in Manage and then click ‘Go…‘
• Uncheck all Add-ins and then click ‘OK.‘
• Then close Outlook and restart it normally.

Check if the error is resolved. If it did,

• Go to ‘File > Options > Add-ins‘ and click ‘Go…‘
• Enable one Add-in at a time and then observe Outlook for the error.
• Repeat these steps to find and remove the faulty Add-in and resolve the error ‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved.’

If the error persists, repair your Outlook data file.

Solution #5: Repair OST File

To fix a damaged OST file, you can use the Inbox Repair tool (SCANPST.EXE) or an Outlook OST to PST converter software, such as Stellar Converter for OST. You can use ScanPST.exe to check the Outlook data file issues and fix them. However, the Inbox repair tool may remove damaged items while fixing the Outlook data file that may cause data loss.

To avoid any data loss and safely restore the mailbox, you should use the OST converter software. The software extracts and restores all mailbox data, such as emails, attachments, contacts, notes, etc., with 100% precision and accuracy in PST format. You may also choose to save the extracted data in other formats or export it to a live Exchange server or Office 365 account.

Next, you can set up a new Outlook profile and import the PST file into your new profile. This will help you resolve the error without losing any data.

Conclusion

In this guide, we discussed several methods and workarounds to fix the ‘Your mailbox has been temporarily moved’ error. Although manual methods help you fix the error, they may involve a risk of data loss. Later, you can convert the backup OST file to PST format by using Stellar Converter for OST software and then import PST into your Outlook profile and restore mailbox items. You can also directly use Stellar Converter for OST to extract mail items from a faulty OST file, save the data in a PST file, or export it to an existing Outlook profile, live Exchange, or Office 365. This will not only save time and effort but also avoid downtime.

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