Maintaining Public Folders

Much of the actual maintenance work on public folders (such as removing expired or deleted messages, or notifying you if the public folders become too large) occurs automatically when Exchange runs its public folder maintenance process. This process runs on a regular schedule, typically during off-peak hours. (For more information about the Exchange automated folder maintenance process, see Configuring Store Maintenance and Backup Options.) You can fine-tune this process by setting size limits and age limits on the public folder stores or on individual public folders, as described in Configuring the Default Public Folder Limits, Configuring Limits on a Specific Public Folder Replica, and Configuring Individual Public Folder Limits.

Exchange also provides several ways to view status information about public folders that may be helpful in troubleshooting public folder issues. For information about viewing the status of folders in a specific public folder store, see Configuring Public Folder Stores. For information about viewing the replication status of public folders, see "Configuring Replicas" in "Controlling Exchange Server 2003 Public Folder Replication" in Working with the Exchange Server 2003 Store. The rest of this section describes the other status views of public folders that are available.