Exchange Server 2016 item recovery feature included in Cumulative Update 6

The upcoming release of Cumulative Update 6 (CU6) for Exchange Server 2016 comes with a long sought after feature — item recovery. Microsoft recently explained a bit about this feature and the benefits it can provide for users of CU6.

Item recovery in CU6

Simply put, the new item recovery feature allows users to recover recently deleted items directly into their original folders. The ability to recover recently deleted items is nothing new. But past updates have only included item recovery that didn’t go back into that original folder.

According to Microsoft, this has been one of the most requested features from Exchange Server customers. So the company changed the whole architecture for recoverable items with this latest update.

How item recovery works

Starting with CU6, Exchange Server will no longer use the Recoverable Items folder, which allowed deleted items to be stored and recovered in Outlook for Windows or Outlook on the web in the last several Exchange updates. Instead, deleted items will be stamped with the LastActiveParentEntryID(LAPEID) MAPI property (property ID 348A). So it uses the folder ID right in the tag, allowing deleted items to be recovered to their original folders even if the folders are renamed or moved in the mailbox’s hierarchy.

The LAPEID stamping mechanism is used as the move destination endpoint. And since it has been in place since Exchange 2016 Cumulative Update 1, you’ll have the ability to recover items to their original folders as soon as you update to CU6.

There are some limitations to this ability though. First, the user’s mailbox must be on the same Mailbox server that has CU6 installed in order to use this functionality. They also must be using Outlook on the web to get this functionality right away, as it’s not yet available for Outlook for Windows or Mac.

Photo credit: Freerange Stock

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