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Some Exchange administrators get confused the first time
they notice that a newly created mailbox isn’t in the information store. This
is because mailboxes must receive at least one message before they appear.
However, what about a mailbox that’s been in use for years but still isn’t showing
up? Since you can’t move a mailbox that’s not in the information store, this can
be a real problem.

By design, Microsoft created the behavior of mailboxes not appearing
in the information store until they receive a message. While this behavior may make
Exchange look better in certain mailbox-creation benchmarks, it certainly doesn’t
help solve the mystery of the missing mailbox.

It’s time to play detective and gather the facts. A mailbox
appears in the information store only after a message destined for the mailbox
actually touches the information store. If a mailbox was originally set up via
the Exchange Administrator or System Manager to forward all messages to an
external address, messages that are destined for the mailbox will never touch the
information store, even after years of use.

The solution to this problem is straightforward. Open the
mailbox in question, stop delivering messages to the forwarding address, and
then send the mailbox a message. Now that the mailbox contains a message, it
should appear in the information store.