User not visible in GAL

[biglebowski]

We have a single user whose email address does not appear in the GAL. I've checked his profile and the "hide from address list" is not enabled. I've also noticed that that enabling the hide from address list for other service accounts/distribution groups does not hide them and they are still in the address list.

 

[58sniper]

First things first - if you logon using OWA, is it any different?

Outlook in cached mode only downloads the offline address book (OAB) once a day. And the server only creates a new OAB once a day. Under the right circumstances, it can take up to two days for any change to be visible to cached Outlook users. But OWA users see the change right away, as they don't use the OAB.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[biglebowski]

Using OWA I can see the user in the GAL and the other accounts are not visible. At least that's one issue cleared up. Why is he visible in OWA GAL and not outlook GAL are they different sources?

 

[58sniper]

cached Outlook uses the OAB, which is downloaded once a day to the local workstation. OWA looks it up in the live GAL. The two just weren't in sync yet. That's normal behavior, and why user accounts should be provisioned in advance, and not "last minute".

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[biglebowski]

The user was created 6 months ago.

 

[alfa2008]

Delete cache in user's profile, and see if it'll appear after cache is reloaded. If not, I would look OAB on server to see if it is updated regularly.

 

[58sniper]

Check the event logs on the Exchange server for any OAB generation issues.

If that doesn't work, then in Outlook, you can force a download of the OAB through Tools>Send/Receive>Download Address Book in Outlook 2007.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[biglebowski]

I found a kb on MS that may be an answer not too sure if I want to try it though as my exchange knowledge is very limited:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936197

 

[alfa2008]

If you're using email addresses with more one domain, example: FirstName.LastName@domain1.com, and FirstName.LastName@domain2.com, and making one as a primary in some cases, that MS link could help, otherwise that has nothing to do with your case.
One thing that crossed my mind that I had one case:
Check if you have made any changes to that user after its creation, ex changing email address, or similar. You should be able to notice it in Application Log of Exchange. Open Exchange Management Console, than go to Organization Configuration/Mailbox, Offline Address Book, right click Default Offline Adress Book, and Update now. After that go to Application Log, and see if you see any warning.

 

[davy2k]

Dear All,
I have been researching on some users not being displayed in the GAL but to no avail.
I am running Exchange 2007 SP1 with .NET 3.5 SP1 and Outlook 2007 pro..
I updated the OAB using Organization-->Mailbox-->OAB but still nothing changed.

I also tried downloading the OAB from outlook but got the following error message:
“Task 'Microsoft Exchange' reported error (0x8004010F) : 'The operation failed. An object cannot be found.'”

I found a forum that said this is due to OAB in IIS not using standard SSL port changed it to "Require SSL..." and restarted IIS still nothing...


Event viewer error:

OALGen encountered an error while generating the changes.oab file for version 2 and 3 differential downloads of address list '\Global Address List'. The offline address list has not been updated so clients will not be able to download the current set of changes. Check other logged events to find the cause of this error.
If the cause of the problem was intentional or cannot be resolved, OALGen can be forced to post a full offline address list by creating the DWORD registry key 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeSA\Parameters\OAL post full if diff fails' and setting it to 1 on this server. When OALGen next generates the offline address list, clients will perform a full OAB download. After that time, the registry key should be removed to prevent further full downloads.
- Default Offline Address List

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp

Thank you for your envisaged help...

 

[58sniper]

Don't require SSL.

The OALGen error is partly the root of the problem. If the server can't generate the OAB, cached Outlook users aren't going to get a new OAB, and thus - your problem. OWA doesn't use OAB, thus why you can see it there.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[GrimR]

Is this on the users machine or every machine that he does not being displayed. Have you tried renaming the files in C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Read this blog and try there suggestions.

http://exchangepedia.com/blog/2005/11/new-user-does-not-show-up-in-gal.html

MCITP:EA/SA, MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCP+I, MCP