In Exchange Server 2016, if you delete a mailbox, the user associated with the mailbox in Active Directory is also deleted. But at some point, you might just want to delete mailbox only. So, in this post I will show steps to delete mailbox without deleting user account in Exchange Server 2016.

01 – The trick is, just disable the mailbox to delete the mailbox to retain the user account. Open Exchange Admin Center (EAC). Click recipients in the features-pane and select mailboxes tab. Here, you can see the list of all the mailboxes configured in the Mailbox server. Select the mailbox you want to delete, click more ===> click disable.

02 – A warning pops up. Click Yes. The mailbox is now disabled.

03 – The mailbox now disappears from the list. The deleted mailbox will be automatically be deleted after the mailbox retention policy period expires.