Outlook 365 Can't Download Global Address List Updates from Exchange 2019

Question

We are using Outlook 365 on workstations that access an on-premises Exchange 2019 server. After a year of no issues, about a month and a half ago Outlook stopped downloading new people added to the Exchange server and its Global Address List. If I try to manually download the Global Address List (using commands in Outlook of File, Account Settings, Download Address Book), it gives the error:

"Task {email address} reported error 0x8004010F. The operation failed. An object cannot be found."

1) I checked the Global Address List on the server, and it is up-to-date. Only Outlook is out-of-date.
2) I created a new Outlook profile, and the Global Address List was up-to-date in the new Outlook profile.

In summary, Outlook can download the Global Address list when you first setup a profile, but it can't download updates after that.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Michael

Answer 1

Hi Michael.

If you are using Outlook in cached mode, Outlook will download an Offline Address Book, which is a copy of an address list collection from the Exchange server. When you "manually download the Global Address List", actually Outlook downloads the Offline Address Book.

To troubleshoot the issue, please follow these steps: 1. run this command via Exchange Management Shell to check if the OAB generation mailbox is missing

Get-Mailbox -Arbitration | where {$_.PersistedCapabilities -like "*OAB*"} | Format-List Name,ServerName

2.If the mailbox is returned in the result, please check this path on the server if the OAB folder is generated

C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\ClientAccess\OAB\<guid>

3.run the following command to update OAB and then check the "Data Modified" of the OAB folder

Update-OfflineAddressBook -identity "Default Offline Address Book"

4.if the folder is updated successfully, please retry manually download OAB via Outlook

5.If the problem persists, please run this command to modify the settings of the OAB

Set-OfflineAddressBook -identity "Default Offline Address Book" -GlobalWebDistributionEnabled $true -VirtualDirectories $null

Restart IIS on the Exchange server and retry the download via Outlook

6.If it doesn't work either, please check the urls of the OAB virtual directory on the Exchange server. And also run a Test E-mail Autoconfiguration via Outlook and see if the OAB url is correct under the "Results" tag.

---

If the response is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it. Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

Thank your for the new ideas! I ran these commands, but, unfortunately, it did not change the situation. I am still getting an error. When updating, it says "Offline address book Connecting to Microsoft Exchange", but it times out. It's strange that there is no problem with first creating the Outlook profile.