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How-To Technical

Issue: Outlook Address Book Not Updating

Symptoms:

New users added to Exchange 2010 do not show up in global address book

Tests Performed:

1. Searched for new users from Outlook – This failed
2. Searched for new users from OWA – This works
3. Put Outlook in non-cached mode and searched – this worked

Suspected Problem:

Offline Address Book Generation is not happening – Possible cause, resources (memory) on host server, service failure.

Steps Taken: *note* I have seen this before so I know where I am looking first

1. Stop the Microsoft Exchange File Distribution Service

2. Stop the Microsoft Exchange Address Book

3. Clear the files from ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoftExchange ServerV14ExchangeOAB’ putting them into a backup folder of some sort.

4. Restart the services above.

5. To get the OAM to immediately generate run the following command: Update-OfflineAddressbook “name of offline address book”. You may encounter an issue stating that the System Attendant Service is not running or you do not have permission. 1. Make sure you are running the Exchange Management Shell as Administrator and 2. The System Attendant Service is running. *note* The Service is named “Microsoft Exchange System Attendant”.

6. You will now notice that the GUIDS and files have started to populate under ExchangeOAB folder

Follow-up Testing that things now work:

1. Exit Outlook and delete the Offline Address Book cache from ‘C:Users%user profile%AppDataLocalMicrosoftOutlookOffline Address Books’

2. Open outlook again cache should repopulate at this point.

3. Open a new email message or click the Address Book and search for the person(s) who were not showing previously.

Conclusion:

The Outlook Client failed to download an updated copy of the Offline Address Book because the services have stopped functioning. I was unable to obtain errors in the event logs regarding this, however having experienced this in the past it has become suspect

– For Darlene