Error message when you use the ExMerge tool to export an Outlook 2003 mailbox to a .pst file: "The item could not be moved" (916085)

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Microsoft Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge) to export a mailbox to a personal folder (.pst) file, you receive one of the following error messages.

Error message 1

The item could not be moved.

Error message 2

The messages/folders could not be moved.

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

You try to export the mailbox data from Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.
The Outlook mailbox is larger than 2 gigabytes (GB).

CAUSE

This problem occurs because the ExMerge tool does not support Unicode .pst files. Unicode is the default .pst file format in Outlook 2003. This allows for a .pst file size of 20 GB. If you export data from Outlook 2003 by using the ExMerge tool, ExMerge exports the data in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) format. This format allows for a .pst file that is less than 2 GB.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, perform one of the following actions:

Request that the mailbox owner delete all e-mail messages that are not required. Alternatively, request that the mailbox owner create a .pst file on the local computer and then move all messages that are not required to that local .pst file. This is to bring the mailbox size to less than 2 GB before you run ExMerge against the mailbox.

Note Because the Exchange Server single instance storage benefits are lost when you convert the mailbox to a .pst file by using ExMerge, the mailbox must be less than 2 GB.
Export the mailbox to a .pst file by using Outlook 2003 instead of by using the ExMerge tool.
Use ExMerge to export individual folders or groups of folders from the mailbox into individual smaller .pst files instead of exporting the whole mailbox to a single large .pst file.

Note When you use ExMerge to export a mailbox to a .pst file, an estimated file size for the destination .pst file is displayed. Although the actual .pst file size may be greater than or less than the estimated file size, this estimate may illustrate the requirement to reduce the source mailbox size to less than 2 GB. Generally, the estimated destination .pst file size is greater than the source mailbox size. For more information about how to use ExMerge to recover or restore a single Exchange Server 2003 mailbox, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

823176 How to recover or to restore a single mailbox in Exchange Server 2003

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about how to obtain the ExMerge tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=429163ec-dcdf-47dc-96da-1c12d67327d5&DisplayLang=en

The download package for the ExMerge tool includes the ExMerge help document (Exmerge.doc). This document contains more information about how to configure and use the ExMerge tool.

Outlook 2003 uses a different format and has a larger overall size limit for .pst files than do earlier versions of Microsoft Outlook. In Microsoft Outlook 2002 and in earlier versions of Outlook, .pst files are in ANSI format. For more information about the .pst format and size limits in Outlook 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

830336 The .pst file has a different format and folder size limit in Outlook 2003