Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry Server Specialists

Exchange Server

Exchange 2007

Offline Address Book Errors

This is for Exchange 2007 ONLY. For the version for Exchange 2003, click here: Offline Address Book Errors - Exchange 2003

Cached mode in the latest versions of Outlook makes use of the Exchange offline address book and the most common problem is when changes made to accounts or lists and not being seen in the global address list on the cached mode clients.

 

Changes to the GAL not being seen

Verify that the GAL is up to date on the server

The quickest way to do this is to use Outlook Web Access to verify the change can be seen.

Getting those changes to be seen by the client

Outlook 2003 and higher cached mode and Offline Folders in older versions of Outlook use the offline address book (OAB). This is downloaded from the Exchange server.

  • If Outlook is running all the time, then it is downloaded every 24 hours. This cannot be changed.
  • It is also downloaded when Outlook is started.

If you want the changes to be seen more quickly, then there are two things that you need to do:

  1. Rebuild the Address Book

    2. If you have had to make any changes then you need to rebuild the address book. This has also been known to fix some of the problems.

    1. Open Exchange Management Shell.
    2. Type get-offlineaddressbook | update-offlineaddressbook and press enter
    3. Wait. Depending on the size of your GAL, the address book rebuild may take some time. 
       
  2. Ask the clients to download their address book again.
    To manually download the address book:
    1. Tools, Send/Receive
    2. Choose "Download Address Book...".
    3. Click OK to the option. 

Outlook Errors:

16:00:12 Synchronizer Version 11.0.6352
16:00:12 Synchronizing Mailbox 'John Smith'
16:00:12 Synchronizing Hierarchy
16:00:12 Done
16:00:12 Microsoft Exchange offline address book
16:00:12      0X8004010F

Resolutions

There are a number of resolutions to these problems.

Replicas

The first thing to check is the replicas for the Offline Address Book on the Exchange server itself.

Exchange 2007 SP1 and Higher

  1. Open the Public Folder Management Console from the Toolbox.
  2. Expand the System Folders section.
  3. Follow the instructions below.

Replication Check

  1. Find the folder "Offline Address Book".
  2. The main folder and each of its sub folders should be checked to ensure that there is at least one server listed. If you only have one Exchange server then there will be just one listed. If you have more then it should be replicated to them all. None of the replica tabs should be blank.
    If there is an invalid server listed, remove it.

Global Address Book Assigned to the Offline Address Book

The Offline Address Book uses the Global Address List (GAL) to build its content. If you have been customising the GAL, then you may have an invalid address book listed.

  1. Open Exchange Management Console, then Organisation Configuration, Mailbox.
  2. Choose the tab Offline Address Book.
  3. Right click on the default and choose Properties.
  4. On the Address Lists make sure that a valid GAL is selected. At least one must be selected.