Exchange 2013 Global Address List

I had this question after viewing Commannds needed to force the update of the Global address list in exch 2013.


After creating new Distribution Groups, through CAS webgui we see the change.
Outlooks however dont update, if we delete oab files we do see the change, but once we download offline we dont see the change anymore.

We ran:
Get-GlobalAddressList | Update-GlobalAddressList

Get-OfflineAddressBook | Update-OfflineAddressBook

and also restarted Mailbox Assistant Services, still no luck.

They dont show up under Global Address list, but shows up properly under All Distribution Lists after its downloaded offline.
itmtiAsked:
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Todd NelsonSystems EngineerCommented:
OAB updates are made, on the Exchange server, automatically once every 24 hours--typically between 3am-5am local time.  The Outlook client will need to be closed (if left open) and then reopened for those changes to be realized in Outlook when cache mode is enabled.

Alternately, after perfoming the steps you outlined in your question, from the Outlook client you can select "Send/Receive" from the toolbar, click "Send/Receive Groups", and choose "Download Address Book". Then disable the option to "Download changes since last Send/Receive" and click OK. This action will download the full (and most current) address book for the individual Outlook user.

As a last resort, you can disable cache mode in Outlook so your users see the live address book from Exchange. However, that will create a lot of traffic on the server as now the Outlook users will be making constant requests to the Exchange server and experience latency when viewing items.

Hope this helps.

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suriyaehnopCommented:
Like Todd said OAB by default run at 3-5am. You can force by running update-addresslist

Although it is done, sometime you will not see the changes in outlook immediately eventhough you manually re-download the address list. It will take at least another 2 days, outlook totally sync with exchange

If you want to take effect immediately, you have to delete/rename the file with extension .oab (rename to .oab1)
itmtiAuthor Commented:
[PS] C:\Windows\system32>get-mailboxserver exchserver | fl *oab*


OABGeneratorWorkCycle           : 02:00:00
OABGeneratorWorkCycleCheckpoint : 00:30:00



[PS] C:\Windows\system32>




I have increased to every 2 hours, but outlook clients still download when they feel like it.   If we do force Download Address book it works, but we cant just instruct hundreds of users to do so every time when changes are done.
this slow gal update has been issue since the beginning, wish microsoft would address this issue.   We are running latest Exch2013 patches and latest Outlook2016, but still same issues unfortunately.

It seems to be correct it takes about 2 days for outlook to figure itself out.
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