Exchange Administrators convert Exchange Database (EDB file) data to PST. There are many reasons why Exchange Administrators need to convert EDB data into PST. Some common reasons are:

Migration of mailboxes and other data to a new system
Archiving mailboxes.
Data extraction from old servers or orphaned databases.
Recovering data after the failure of a server.

This article will discuss the different ways to export data from a Exchange Server database (EDB file) to PST format.
Exchange EDB to PST Conversion Methods
We will discuss the pros and cons for each method of converting EDB to PST.

Convert EDB Data into PST using Outlook

Microsoft Outlook can export mailboxes, shared mailboxes, shared folders, archives or public folders from EDB to PST. Follow the steps below:

Open Microsoft Outlook and click File, then select Open & Export. Click on Import/Export.

Click on the Export to File button and click Next.
Click Next after selecting Outlook Data File (.pst).

You will be shown the complete list of profiles. Select the profile if you only want to export one mailbox. If you want to export multiple mailboxes you will need to set up each profile. You will need the credentials for each mailbox.

Click Next after selecting the profile.

Click Finish to save your PST file.

There are limitations to the above method.

Exporting large resources is not recommended. When exporting large mailboxes, the application may become unresponsive.
If the process is interrupted, there is no way to continue.
To export multiple mailboxes, you must configure the mail profile of each mailbox. This could take a considerable amount of time.
You cannot recover deleted items or disabled emails.
The only way to make it work is if you have the Exchange Server online and the database mounted.

Exchange Admin Center (EAC), convert EDB data to PST.

Exchange Admin Center (EAC), which is part of Microsoft Exchange, can be used to convert EDB data into PST. You must have the appropriate permissions to do this. Log in to the Exchange Admin Center and click Permissions. Then click Admin roles.

Add the new admin role. Add the Mailbox Import/Export role to the Roles.

You cannot export data directly. Instead, you need to set up a file-sharing system to which you can export data. After creating the folder and enabling it, make sure that the user who is exporting the data can access it and has full permissions for the Exchange Trusted Subsystem.

Follow the steps below to export EDB data using the EAC.

Click on Recipients after logging in to the Exchange Admin Center.
Click on More Options and then click on Export as a PST File.

Select the mailbox you wish to export, and then select the desired options.

Click Finish to finish the process.

Here are some limitations to the above method.

Exporting multiple mailboxes is not possible.
Cannot export disabled folders, public folders and deleted items.
Cannot be used when the Exchange Server does not run or if the mailbox database has not been mounted.
There are no filtering options available.

Exchange Management Shell (EMS), Extracting using

PowerShell commands can be used in Exchange Management Shell to export EDB data into PST. It is similar to Exchange Admin Center. The commands offer more flexibility, as you can customize your export by using filtering options. It also allows scripting the export. You can export multiple mailboxes.
You will need to create the network share and have the same permissions as the Exchange Admin Center.
Now, to export one mailbox to the specified network path/PST file, open the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) and use the New-MailboxExportRequest command as given below.

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox -FilePath
You can also exclude or include specific folders or use a mixture of both when you export the mailbox. Below is an example:
New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox -FilePath -IncludeFolders “”, “” -ExcludeFolders “”, “”

You can also filter data by date. The first option you have is Less Than (LT). It will export the entire content up to the specified date.
New-MailboxExportRequest -ContentFilter (Received -lt ”) -Mailbox -Filepath
You can use the Greater Than option (GT) to export data from a certain date forward (see the example below).
New-MailboxExportRequest -ContentFilter (Received -gt ”) -Mailbox -Filepath
If you want to export based upon a date range you can use a combination of Greater Than (GT), and Less Than(LT) options (see the example below).
New-MailboxExportRequest -ContentFilter (Received -gt ”) – (Received -lt ”) -Mailbox -Filepath
You can use the following command to export the archive mailbox for a user mailbox.
New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox -FilePath -IsArchive
Here are some limitations to this method:

Filtering options are limited.
Exporting many mailboxes all at once can slow down the server.
You will need to know how to script.
Cannot work without the Exchange Server running and the databases mounted.
Export only user mailboxes and shared mailboxes.

Convert EDB file to PST with EDB Converter Tool

You can use a variety of professional tools to convert EDB to PST. Stellar Converter for EDB is one such application. It can open EDB files of any size from any Exchange Server. It allows you to export granularly to PST, other file formats and directly to a Microsoft 365 or live Exchange Server. The application has features such as automatic mailbox match, parallel and priority exports, to facilitate EDB conversion to PST.
This tool has many benefits.

Exchange Server versions 5.0 and earlier can open EDB files.
You can export User mailboxes as well as User Archives, Shared mailboxes and Disabled mailboxes.
You can also export deleted or purged items.
You can export EDB data directly into a live Exchange Server tenant or Microsoft 365 tenant.
You can view the complete status of the export.

To Conclude
We have discussed different methods to convert Exchange EDB to PST. Manual methods do have limitations. They can only be used if the Exchange Server and database are mounted. You can still convert offline EDB files into PST using a specialized EDB-to-PST converter tool like Stellar Converter for EDB, even if your Exchange Server is not working. The tool has an intuitive interface that makes it easy to convert EDB data into PST.
Robotics