Get solutions in this article if you are facing the issue “Exchange Dirty Shutdown Error.”

Exchange, though sophisticated enough to handle a large number of transactions, encounters many issues, one of which is Dirty Shutdown Error.

Exchange Dirty Shutdown is a common error that causes failure in mounting a database. The most common reason for the Dirty Shutdown error is an inconsistent transaction in Exchange information store due to its sudden termination. When EDB file is improperly detached from transaction log files, data is unsaved, and the database goes to the dirty shutdown state. When Exchange log files (which holds records of transactions) are left uncommitted, the database in such situation is said to be in dirty shutdown state. The Exchange Server is unable to read transaction logs, and in turn, when the user tries to access Exchange database, it throws Dirty Shutdown error.

The Exchange Dirty Shutdown errors display like this:

• Operation terminated with error -550 (JET_errDatabaseDirtyShutdown, Database was not shut down cleanly. Recovery must first be run to complete database properly
• Exchange is unable to mount the database that you specified
• ERROR: database was not shut down cleanly (dirty shutdown)

Ways to fix Exchange Dirty Shutdown Error
Before going to fix the Dirty Shutdown error, one should check the database state.

For private folders in Exchange Server database, run this command in Command Prompt:

c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /mh “c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb”
Here, “c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\priv1.edb” is the path location of the Exchange database.

Similarly, for public folders, run this command:
c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /mh “c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\pub1.edb”

If any or both the commands show that Exchange is in Dirty shutdown state, then there are transactions still waiting to get committed to the database. And if it shows Clean Shutdown state, then it means the database is correctly detached from the log files.

Coming to the solutions for fixing the Exchange Dirty Shutdown Error, let us go through each one by one:

The manual technique to cope up the Dirty Shutdown Error issue involves the following steps:

1. First, take a backup of all Exchange database files like .edb (pub.edb and priv.edb), .stm, and logs. Copy these files to a secure location on the system.
2. The next step depends on the condition of log files. To check the status of the log files, run this command:
   c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /ml “c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\test.edb” In output,
   • if log files are clean, then perform the Soft Recovery process
   • if log files are missing, then perform the Hard Recovery process.

   For clean log files, execute the Soft recovery by running this command

   c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /r /l “log files path location” /d” database path location”

   And, if the log files are corrupt or missing, you need to execute the Hard Recovery process. In Hard Recovery, log files are replayed and restored from online backup. Here checkpoint file is not used and, in its place, the restore.env file is used. It is created at a temporary folder location in the system after the database is restored from the backup. You need to copy this temporary folder and paste it to some other location in the system. Run this command to perform Hard Recovery:

   c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /cc “restore.env file folder path”

   Now, check whether temporary folder contains files or not. Then, try mounting the database again.

   But there are cases, when you do not have any backup, run the given command in such case:

   c:\program files\exchsrvr\bin>eseutil /p “c:\program files\exchsrvr\mdbdata\test.edb

After this, try running and mounting the database again. If the database is accessible, the recovery is successful.

But sometimes, these techniques fail due to human errors, technical complexities or execution errors. So, in such situations, one can consider the recovery of EDB file using a secure third-party tool.

Exchange Recovery Manager, the popular EDB recovery tool, is capable of performing EDB recovery and migration to Exchange and other platforms like Office 365, Outlook, etc. It not only recovers EDB data but also allows to move only the selected data to the destination. The tool provides other facilities as well like preview, backup extraction, operation log(s), etc. Demo version is available for all to understand the tool and perform small data recovery, up to 25 items per folder.

Conclusion
Exchange Dirty shutdown error makes Exchange data inaccessible. The manual techniques like using eseutil application to perform soft and hard recovery has been discussed in this article. And due to the limitations of eseutil utility, a reliable professional EDB to PST tool is also suggested. Hope this article has helped you fix Exchange dirty shutdown error.