Soft Recovery of Exchange Database Using ESEUTIL /R Command

An ESEUTIL /r command replay the transaction logs, this command is used for the soft recovery of Exchange Database. It is usually found that when the database goes in “dirty shutdown state” ESEUTIL /r soft recovery is performed.


Caution: Don’t Run the ESEUTIL /R just to see what happens as this is an emergency command strictly used only when all else methodology has fails to get the server in working state.  


  • ESEUTIL /R Syntax: ESEUTIL /r

Note:The Exchange database is in the same location with logs.

Soft Recovery Using Exchange Inbuilt ESEUTIL /R Utility

Soft Recovery of Exchange database is a log replay process that usually occurs only after the mention below process.

  1. DB are remounted after an unexpected or sudden shutdown state
  2. Replay log for DB offline file copy backup
  3. Replay log for VSS Backup Set (Volume shadow copy service)

The most common scenario where ESEutil /r Soft recovery is required is when an external event suddenly shutdown. In this condition the database goes in "dirty shutdown state" to bring it back in "clean shutdown state" User run ESEUTIL /R command. The command bring the database in clean state, one cloud easily check it by running ESEUTIL /MH <path of database>

Condition 1:

To make sure that database is in consistent state simply run ESEUTIL /R

Condition 2:

When your transaction log database is in different location then use /I and /D to insert locations of Logs.

Have a Look on How to Run ESEUTIL /R?

The basic command for soft recovery of Exchange database is ESEUTIL