Delete specific message from all mailboxes on Exchange 2010 server

What:

Microsoft Windows 2008R2 with Exchange 2010 SP1

Problem:

You have been asked to delete message with subject "Confidential" from all mailboxes in the organization.

Solution:

1. Assign your account the "Mailbox Import Export RBAC" role.
Start  "Exchange Management Shell" and use below command:

New-ManagementRoleAssignment -Role "Mailbox Import Export" -User administrator

2. Close and Reopen "Exchange Mangement Shell" to apply changes.
3. Create report before deleting actual data.

Summary report send to administrator's mailbox

Get-mailbox | Search-Mailbox –SearchQuery "Subject:'Confidential'" –Logonly –Targetmailbox administrator –Targetfolder Inbox

You can also use additional switches like:

-DoNotIncludeArchive
-SearchDumpster:$false
-LogLevel Full

You can also export report to a csv file:

Get-Mailbox | Search-Mailbox -SearchQuery "Subject:'Confidential'" -EstimateResultOnly | Export-CSV C:\email-report.csv -NoType

4. Now delete all emails

Get-mailbox | Search-Mailbox –SearchQuery "Subject:'Confidential'" –DeleteContent

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