Object is read only because… when removing Public Folder Database in Exchange 2007

During the transition of Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010, the following error may occur when trying to remove the Public Folder database:

Error: Object is read only because it was created by a future version of Exchange: 0.10 (14.0.100.0). Current supported version is 0.1 (8.0.535.0).

I’m not sure, but I think this error only occurs if you ran MoveAllReplicas.ps1 at the Exchange 2010 server. This seems to modify the Public Folder database with Exchange 2010 characteristics.

To remove the database, you should run the Remove-PublicFolderDatabase cmdlet from the Exchange 2010 management shell (EMS).

First, find out the exact identity of the PF Database that you want to remove:

   1: Get-PublicFolderDatabase–Server "Ex2k7" | fl name, identity 

This outputs the identity of the public folder. For example:

Name     : DB_PF

Identity : Ex2k7\StorageGroup\DB_PF

Now run the following command to remove the database:

   1: Remove-PublicFolderDatabase "Ex2k7\StorageGroup\DB_PF" 

The public folder database should now be removed.