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Found a weird one for you. Our org. has 5 distribution groups with names starting with the word "Credit ...". Like "Credit Team One", "Credit Team Two", "Credit Team Three", etc etc. All 5 groups are set up the same. Universal Distribution group, identical naming format for pre-Windows 2000 and group name. Eveything about the groups is exactly the same until you get to the third word of the group name. Here's where it gets weird:

If you pull up the global address list in outlook and type "C" only, one of the 5 groups shows up, (Credit Team Four), at the very top of all "C" entries, even though the next letter is an "R", it stays above entires that have a lower second letter of the alphabet. but if you proceed to type "...redit" so you now have the full word "Credit", that one group disappears because the list jumps down alphabetically the rest of the "cr" words, and the other 4 show up. Essentially, you cannot search any version of the names to get all 5 groups named "Credit Team..." to show up in the search list next to each other.

Example search, Global Address List, Name only radio button
"C"
Credit Team Four
Call Center
Carter, Brianna


"Cred"
Credit Team Five
Credit Team One
Credit Team Three
Credit Team Two

Even if you fully type out the full name "Credit Team Four", it doesn't show up. It ONLY shows up if nothing but the letter "c" is in the text box

None of these are new groups (months or years old), this is not a slowness issue of exchange. It's present on all client copies of the address book, cached or live. There's no weird empty space in the name, or symbol or character hiding that would cause the search string to behave wrongly. This is causing UX problems for us.

Edit: Discovered new info

It's not that this group is missing entirely. I just discovered that "Credit Team Four" is the very first entry on the search list for "C" groups and users. that's why it shows up when you type just "C", but when you proceed further into the word "Credit", the list jumps down to the other four groups, which are properly alphabetized along with other "Cr" entires. It's like the search isn't recognizing anything past the first letter of this group name. it isn't being grouped along with other objects that start with "cr"

WakeDemons3
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  • Can you check and compare the the Distribution Groups in ADSI edit? Specifically check the MSExchHideFromAddressLists attribute. – Joe Feb 13 '19 at 23:58
  • @joe - All 5 groups are for MSExchHideFromAddressList – WakeDemons3 Feb 14 '19 at 13:32
  • which makes sense, i'ts not hiding from the address list. it's just behaving unexpectadly based on search string input. – WakeDemons3 Feb 14 '19 at 14:35
  • the only attribute difference i see in ADSI is that this group in question (Four) has msExchAddressBookFlags set to "1", while all the others are for that attribute. – WakeDemons3 Feb 14 '19 at 14:57

3 Answers3

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This problem was resolved by simply deleting the displayName attribute and then adding back the exact same string. It makes no sense, but in ADSI, I clicked Edit on the displayName attribute, removed "Credit Team Four", and then added back exactly the same "Credit Team Four", and now the group searches and alphabetizes properly in the GAL.

WakeDemons3
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It's possible that, even if those groups look the same, something is actually wrong or misspelled, causing one of them to misbehave when sorted.

Try having a loog at the following Active Directory attributes (using ADSIEdit or ADUC with View -> Advanced Features enabled):

cn
displayName
mailNickname
name
sAMAccountName
Massimo
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  • All those attributes were exactly correct, and identical to the other 4 groups (except for the third word of course). I resolved this issue by deleting displayName and then adding it back. Even though it was already exactly right, deleting and readding it back fixed it. – WakeDemons3 Feb 14 '19 at 16:25
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What's your Exchange and Outlook version? When you log on OWA and search the DG names, does it show correctly? I tested in my Exchange 2013 lab, there are several DGs in the server, when I type 'd' or 'dl' in the gal search box, it returns the same result.

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If you can see them on OWA that the DGs have been generated in the GAL. Then the problem can only be generated in the OAB generation distribution, or the client downloads the OAB. Therefore, I suggest you refer to the following steps:

  1. Force downloading complete OAB file by deleting the client local address book cache file and restarting Outlook:

a. Quit Outlook, Microsoft Lync, and any other applications that may be connected to Outlook.

b. Open Windows Explorer

c. Change the options to show hidden items.

d. Find C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\Offline Address Books. (AppData is a hidden folder.)

e. Delete the contents of the offline address book folder.

f. Restart Outlook.

  1. check if the new OAB file is generated in the installation path on the Mailbox server. The path is C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\VNumber\ClientAccess\OAB

  2. If a new OAB file has been generated, update your contact list, GAL and OAB with the following command:

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-AddressList | Update-AddressList

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-GlobalAddressList | Update-GlobalAddressList

[PS] C:\Windows\system32>Get-OfflineAddressBook | Update-OfflineAddressBook

  1. After executing the commands above, please re-download the OAB completely in the Outlook-Send/Receive - Send/Receive Groups – Download Address Book. Please note the following options.

a. On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Download Address Book.

b. Under Downloaded Information, click Full Details.

  1. If the problem persists, you can update your Exchange server the latest build and create an Outlook profile for problematic users. Creating a new Outlook profile will not affect the existing profile. This will help us to rule out if there is a problem with the old profile. For specific steps you can refer to the following article:

How to create and configure an email profile in Outlook

Since there are five DGs, you can also recreate new five DGs with different names.

Kelvin_D
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  • Here's a similar thread for your reference: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/80514903-d058-4750-99ae-aec3ce954a2c/search-global-address-list-user-missing?forum=exchangesvradminlegacy – Kelvin_D Feb 14 '19 at 03:26
  • There's a lot to unpack here, but let me just say to part of it: This weird problem exists everywhere, all local clients, OWA, air-gapped new PCs with new user accounts, etc. This not a problem of any one workstation's AppData or copy of the GAL. – WakeDemons3 Feb 14 '19 at 13:35
  • Also, 90% of users do not even have offline address book AppData. this is non-cached exchange mode. – WakeDemons3 Feb 14 '19 at 14:13