Migration - On-prem users that I cannot permanently delete from ExchangeOnline

Question

Migration - On-prem users that I cannot permanently delete from ExchangeOnline

BCassady 0

I made a mistake: I un-synced an OU of users in Azure AD Connect. Then "permanently deleted" them from Entra. No mailboxes were migrated.

Now, I have re-synched them in Azure AD Connect, but I cannot migrate their mailboxes because M365 has SoftDeletedMailUsers.

These are not Mailboxes. “Get-Mailbox -SoftDeletedMailbox” returns no results.

They are MailUsers. “Get-MailUser -SoftDeletedMailUser” returns a list.

Each user is listed twice:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-Recipient -Identity "******@organization.org" -IncludeSoftDeletedRecipients | FT ID, DisplayName
Id                                                        DisplayName
--                                                        -----------
Soft Deleted Objects\1fa3f53a-000e-4d7d-97bc-c02cfbdc74c1 LastName, First
52a984d2-de24-4987-a020-14366be2d3dc                      52a984d2-de24-4987-a020-14366be2d3dc

The soft deleted user's ExchangeGuid is the same for all soft deleted users, but the ArchiveGuid matches the On-Prem user's ArchiveGuid. The active user's ExchangeGuid and ArchiveGuid are both set to all zeroes:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-Recipient -Identity "******@ridetarc.org" -IncludeSoftDeletedRecipients | FT DisplayName, ExchangeGuid, ArchiveGuid
DisplayName           ExchangeGuid                         ArchiveGuid
-----------           ------------                         -----------
Franklin, Darlene     1b2eaa95-0d64-4469-9fb2-d8f9----- 762a4110-b243-43d6-9bcb-53164a-----
52a984d2-de24-4987... 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

I can’t remove the Soft Deleted MailUser:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Remove-MailUser -Identity "1fa3f53a-000e-4d7d-97bc-c02--" -PermanentlyDelete
Write-ErrorMessage : ||Unable to permanently delete mail enabled user. The mail enabled user has litigation hold or In-Place hold applied on it. Please remove the hold before trying to delete.
At C:\Users\PII\AppData\Local\Temp\tmpEXO_2usudler.ype\tmpEXO_2usudler.ype.psm1:1189 char:13
+             Write-ErrorMessage $ErrorObject
+             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (Soft Deleted Ob...bc-c02cfbdc74c1:ADObjectId) [Remove-MailUser], RecipientTaskException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : [Server=DM6PR09MB--,RequestId=1c41917f-ff98-dbb3-c4e3-f16ae7e3--,TimeStamp=Fri, 22 Aug 2025 21:18:20 GMT],Write-ErrorMessage

There are no visible holds on the user (and no mailbox got migrated):

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-MailUser -Identity "1fa3f53a-000e-4d7d-97bc-c02cfbd--" -SoftDeletedMailUser | FL ID, DisplayName, *Hold*
 
 
Id                        : Soft Deleted Objects\1fa3f53a-000e-4d7d-97bc-c02cfbdc74c1
DisplayName               : LastName, FirstName
LitigationHoldEnabled     : False
ComplianceTagHoldApplied  : False
DelayHoldApplied          : False
DelayReleaseHoldApplied   : False
RetentionHoldEnabled      : False
EndDateForRetentionHold   :
StartDateForRetentionHold :
LitigationHoldDate        :
LitigationHoldOwner       :
InPlaceHolds              : {}

Does anyone know how to fix this?

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi @BCassady

Thank you for sharing all the details and PowerShell output. I understand this situation is blocking your migration work, and I can imagine how frustrating that must be.

As community moderators, we unfortunately don’t have access to the internal tools or backend systems needed to investigate or remove these stuck SoftDeletedMailUser objects directly. Resolving this will require deeper, tenant-level analysis from a team with the appropriate administrative access.

Could you please confirm whether you have already raised a support ticket with Microsoft? If not, I would strongly recommend doing so, as their support engineers can:

Check for any hidden compliance holds in the backend.
Fully remove the soft-deleted objects.
Ensure the on-premises and cloud objects are correctly linked before migration.

Additionally, could you let us know if the affected accounts still exist in your on-premises Active Directory? This information will help the escalation team narrow down the root cause more quickly.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. I realize this is an extra step, but it’s the most reliable way to get you unblocked.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

BCassady 0

@Jade-T Thanks for your response. Yes, I have already reached out to Microsoft Support. They have not been as responsive as I would have hoped.

Yes, the AD users and mailboxes still exist on-prem.

Jade-T 4,315 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-28T07:04:30.35+00:00

Hi @BCassady

Thank you for the update. I understand how frustrating it is when you're stuck, and support isn't as responsive as you need them to be.

Since you've already opened a support ticket, the most effective next step is to politely but firmly request an escalation.

Reply to your open ticket and clearly state that the issue is a critical migration blocker for your organization. Reiterate the key technical details you've already shared: that Remove-MailUser is failing on a hold, even though no visible holds are listed. This strongly suggests a hidden backend issue that only a senior support engineer can fix.

Only an escalated support engineer with the right tools can remove these stuck SoftDeletedMailUser objects from the backend and unblock your migration.
BCassady 0 Reputation points

2025-08-28T16:53:30.16+00:00

Yesterday's email instructed me to use MsolService to get a list of deleted users and then restore them one-by-one.

The MSOnline module is deprecated and I can't connect using it.

I used the Microsoft.Graph module and ran Get-MgDirectoryDeletedItemAsUser which returned 1 user that is not part of the SoftDeletedMailUsers...

To answer your question yes, this case has been escalated to our internal team. I’ve coordinated with them, and the investigation is now complete. Based on their findings, the next step is to restore the soft-deleted users.

I don't know what the support structure is. I don't believe that I've been escalated. I sent my reply about MSOnline being deprecated and Microsoft.Graph not showing the deleted users in question (remember, I used Entra to "permamnatly delete" the users). I asked to be escalated again.

I've sent another email specifically stating that this has pushed our migration back over a week and that the case needs to be escalated further.

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Migration - On-prem users that I cannot permanently delete from ExchangeOnline

2 answers

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