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Using Exchange 2013 high-resolution photos from SharePoint Server 2013

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In this post I described how Lync 2013 Preview can use high-resolution photos available in Exchange 2013 Preview mailboxes. SharePoint Server 2013 is also able to use the same high-resolution photos. The SharePoint-Exchange photo sync feature implements this.

How it works

SharePoint Server 2013 maintains a library of User Photos, just like in SharePoint Server 2010. When SharePoint-Exchange photo sync is enabled, SharePoint's local photo store becomes a cache, and SharePoint Server 2013 treats Exchange 2013 as the master photo store. SharePoint-Exchange photo sync is not a regular sync job that runs on a recurring cycle. Instead, SharePoint Server 2013 requests photos from Exchange 2013 automatically when a user performs an operation that causes a request for their own photo (for example, browsing to their own user profile page). That means that the user needs to have requested his/her own photo, before other users will be able to see it.

When a user with a valid Exchange 2013 mailbox attempts to change their profile photo, SharePoint Server 2013 will launch the Outlook 2013 Web App photo upload dialog.

Two variables (which can be set per web-application) help govern the syncing behavior:

  • UserPhotoExpiration (in hours) specifies the minimum time that must elapse before SharePoint Server 2013 will check for a given user's photo again.
  • UserPhotoErrorExpiration (in hours) specifies the minimum time that must elapse before SharePoint Server 2013 will check for a given user's photo when it received an error on the previous attempt.

SharePoint Server 2013 is using the Exchange Web Services Managed API V2.0 and Server to Server authentication (S2SOAuth) to be able to read data from Exchange 2013.

Configuration

Let me show how to configure the integration. I will use the following sample environment to illustrate the configuration:

  • One Exchange 2013 Client Access server with FQDN e15fe.contoso.com
  • One Exchange 2013 Mailbox server with FQDN e15be.contoso.com.
    • The test users have Exchange 2013 mailbox with the primary SMTP address test1@contoso.com and test2@contoso.com
    • High resolution photos have been uploaded to the mailboxes
  • One SharePoint Server 2013 server with FQDN sps15.contoso.com
  • A DNS record for autodiscover.contoso.com points to e15fe.contoso.com

In the sample environment the programs have been installed on the C: drive.

Step 1: Exchange 2013 Autodiscover Service

Configure the Exchange 2013 Autodiscover service to be available on the FQDN autodiscover.contoso.com. Use the following Exchange Management Shell command on e15fe.contoso.com.

Get-ClientAccessServer | Set-ClientAccessServer -AutoDiscoverServiceInternalUri https://autodiscover.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml

Step 2: External Url's set

SharePoint Server 2013 use the external Url variants for EWS and ECP when accessing the photos on Exchange 2013. In the sample environment I'll use the internal FQDN's also for external use. Use the following Exchange Management Shell command on e15fe.contoso.com.

Get-WebServicesVirtualDirectory | Set-WebServicesVirtualDirectory –InternalUrl https://e15fe.contoso.com/ews/exchange.asmx –ExternalUrl https://e15fe.contoso.com/ews/exchange.asmx

Get-EcpVirtualDirectory | Set-EcpVirtualDirectory –InternalUrl https://e15fe.contoso.com/ecp –ExternalUrl https://e15fe.contoso.com/ecp

Step 3: Exchange Web Services Managed API V2.0

Install the EWS Managed API from the link above on sps15.contoso.com. Make sure that the Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.dll is loaded into the GAC by using GacUtil. Make sure to use the .NET 4 version of GacUtil (C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools after you have installed .NET 4.0 SDK)

GacUtil /i C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange\Web Services\2.0\Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.dll

Step 4 SharePoint S2SOAuth configuration with Exchange

Now it is time to configure SharePoint to do S2SOAuth with Exchange.  Use the following SharePoint 2013 Management Shell commands:

  • New-SPTrustedSecurityTokenIssuer -name "Exchange" -MetadataEndPoint "https://autodiscover.contoso.com/autodiscover/metadata/json/1"
  • $sts=Get-SPSecurityTokenServiceConfig
  • $sts.HybridStsSelectionEnabled = $true
  • $sts.AllowMetadataOverHttp = $false
  • $sts.AllowOAuthOverHttp = $false
  • $sts.Update()
  • $exchange=Get-SPTrustedSecurityTokenIssuer "Exchange"
  • $app=Get-SPAppPrincipal -Site https://sps15 -NameIdentifier $exchange.NameId
  • $site=Get-SPSite https://sps15
  • Set-SPAppPrincipalPermission -AppPrincipal $app -Site $site.RootWeb -Scope sitesubscription -Right fullcontrol -EnableAppOnlyPolicy

Step 5 Exchange S2SOAuth configuration with SharePoint

We now need to configure the Exchange 2013 side of things. Use the following Exchange Management Shell commands:

Make sure to restart IIS on both front-end and back-end by issuing the following commands in a command window:

  • iisreset e15fe
  • iisreset e15be

Step 6 Configure SharePoint 2013 Exchange photo sync

Use the following SharePoint 2013 Management Shell commands:

  • $wa = Get-SPWebApplication https://sps15
  • $wa.Properties["ExchangeAutodiscoverDomain"] = "autodiscover.contoso.com"
  • $wa.UserPhotoImportEnabled = $true
  • $wa.UserPhotoErrorExpiration = 1.0
  • $wa.UserPhotoExpiration = 6.0
  • $wa.Update()

How to try it out?

Sign in to Windows as test1 and use IE to access his My site at https://sps15/my. You should now see the high-resolution photo being shown as the profile photo.

If some reason, the photo is not showing you might be able to diagnose the issue by examining the ULS logs available at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\LOGS.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ryan, Nathaniel and Sesha for their input to this post.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Just FYI: MSDN says that UserPhotoErrorExpiration property counts in HOURS while UserPhotoExpiration property counts in DAYS.
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spwebapplication.userphotoerrorexpiration(v=office.15).aspx
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.administration.spwebapplication.userphotoexpiration(v=office.15).aspx Jens>Thanks for feedback. The MSDN page is wrong. The parameter is in hours. I've asked the page to be corrected.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Jeroen,
    Any answer from Mircosoft on this issue? I have the same problems you discribed. Already triple checked all the urls from step 1 & 2...

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2013
    You get lost away while you are reading technet. But your blog  brings all things together at one place and a person does not need extra effort.   Jens, I  too am struggling  with this issue.

  • Anonymous
    October 06, 2013
    Hello Jens, First of all, thanks for the post! Im just having problem when the users change their photo from Exchange it won't change on Sharepoint Automatically. Do you have an idea how to fix it? thanks Jens>Thanks! The photo on SharePoint should change within the time you have configured for the expiry. If it doesn't my recommendation is to take a look in the ULS log to see if you can find an error.

  • Anonymous
    May 25, 2014
    Hi Jens - Thanks for the article it worked well for me. Do you know of a way to trigger SharePoint to request the Exchange photo without requiring a user side browser load of their profile? I can't rely on the users to do this for me! Jens>Thanks! No, I don't believe there is any other way to trigger it.

  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2014
    Hi Jens,

    I've gone through this procedure with On-Premise SharePoint 2013 and On-Premise Exchange 2013. From Exchange, get-partnerapplication looks like it is successfully partnered with SharePoint; however, the pictures don't synchronize between Exchange and SharePoint when a user profile page is loaded from the WebApplication.

    In the SharePoint ULS logs, I see this message when I access my user profile page:

    PhotosUrl or EcpPhotoUrl is null (from AutoDiscover) for Url
    ProcessPictureRequest: AutoDiscoverPhotoUrls returned the following: ExternalPhotosUrl = , ExternalEcpPhotoUrl =

    Does this mean that SharePoint can't find the autodiscover URL or is autodiscover not returning values for those URLs?

    Any help is greatly appreciated. Jens>Yes, the  problem is that SharePoint can't get the values in the Autodiscover response it needs to get to the photos. You can use a tool like EWSEditor to look at the Autodiscover response coming back.

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 31, 2014
    Raul, make sure you are only using the FQDN of the exchange server, do not prepend with https:// or http://.

  • Anonymous
    January 30, 2015
    Hi Jens,
    Can you confirm that the solution above is still working with the latest versions of Exchange and SharePoint 2013?
    We tried it but did not succeed and we opened case about it by Microsoft. They say that the procedure above does not work (anymore). We also get the same response as Raul (PhotosUrl or EcpPhotoUrl is null (from AutoDiscover) for Url) but EWSEditor response is ok.
    Any help is greatly appreciated. Jens>I have not heard anything to indicate that this should not work any more. You need to make sure you have set the ExternalUrl on EcpVirtualDirectory and WebServicesVirtualDirectory.

  • Anonymous
    February 03, 2015
    Thanks Jens for your reply.
    The ExternalUrl is set.
    Your Microsoft co-worker, Goncalo Martins, e-mailed me this:

    So, after some test that my SEE colleague did, he got the same issue as you, but through other repro-steps.
    We then setup a complete new lab, where we ran the exact same steps as you did, from the blog, but this doesn’t work.
    So, it seems that the blog you have used, does not contain all the necessary information to retrieve the HighRes pictures.

    Maybe you can assist them in the Microsoft case, REG:115010612230464, we have.

    Thanks,
    Jeroen Jens>Hi Jeroen, please continue to work the case via Microsoft Support. If the ExternalUrl's are set the place to look is the OAuth configuration. If the two sides doesn't trust each other it won't work. The ULS log on the SharePoint side has debug information and you can also trace OAuth on the Exchange side.

  • Anonymous
    July 13, 2015
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 23, 2015
    Is there a way to reverse this? We tried it and it doesn't suit our needs and would like to revert these changes. Jens>Setting $wa.UserPhotoImportEnabled = $false should disable it

  • Anonymous
    October 05, 2015
    Following on my previous post about different user profile photo options for SharePoint 2013 , I wanted

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2016
    Great post - thanks!

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2016
    On step 5, instead of cd \Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Scripts> you can use cd $exscripts