Users excluded from address list are still appearing in SharePoint Online modern People Search but not Delve

Matthew Lamb 1

I have set a user account to be excluded from address lists using the on-prem AD attribute msexchHideFromAddressLists, also setting the mailnickname attribute to ensure things get replicated correctly. This is working and I can see that the SharePoint user profile has got SPS-HideFromAddressLists set to true.

This user does now not appear in Delve when searching by the username, which is great.

However, the user does still appear when searching in the SharePoint modern search, under the People tab (/_layouts/15/sharepoint.aspx). My understanding is that this should respect the SPS-HideFromAddressLists property the same way Delve does. There's no way to customise the query as far as I can see.

Is there some additional caching that happens, something else that I need to set, or should the People search be returning the same result as Delve?

JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-08T01:47:34.793+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

I am currently looking into this issue and will give you an update as soon as possible.

Thank you for your understanding and support.
Matthew Lamb 1 Reputation point

2022-02-08T08:56:20.72+00:00

Hi Julie,

Thanks for your answer but this is for the Classic search experience, which I don't need to change.

According to the article you linked (in the comments added by the article's author):

"This is done automatically in the Modern search experience. All of the following are excluded people properties in the modern people search : {?{searchTerms} (-"sps-usertype":1 AND -"sps-hidefromaddresslists":1 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=4 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=16 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=32 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=8589934592 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=17179869184 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=34359738368 AND -"sps-recipienttypedetails"=2199023255552) ContentClass=urn:content-class:SPSPeople}"

So I would like to know whether this is really the case, as I am not seeing the excluded users being automatically excluded from the Modern search experience.
JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-10T08:35:01.963+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

Thanks for the update, as this question requires Exchange related attributes in AD, I'm deploying it, I'll update this post if I make any progress.
Olivier Delplanque 1 Reputation point

2022-09-16T07:20:12.517+00:00

For us the user was still showing in Delve. We needed also do delete the cache (tempory internet files...) of your own browser (edge,chrome).

1 answer

JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-08T06:25:09.21+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

From this article, SharePoint Online People search results means the classic people search result page with the suffix "peopleresults.aspx", not the modern people search page.

If you have an Enterprise Search Center, this is the search results page for the People search vertical.

Edit the classic people search result page and Change Query Text from {searchboxquery} to {searchboxquery} -"SPS-HideFromAddressLists":1 to compare the result.

-----------------------------------------------Update Answer-----------------------------------------------

Per my test,if the msExchHideFromAddressLists property has been set to True, then sync to azure ad, we will not able to find this user again in modern search and delve:

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JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-11T01:49:42.87+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

Please check the updated answer.

JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-15T08:14:44.803+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

I’m checking how the things are going on about this issue.

Please feel free to reply if there is any update.

JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-22T06:00:23.67+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

Is there any progress on this issue?

Please feel free to reply.

Matthew Lamb 1 Reputation point

2022-02-23T08:13:37.47+00:00

Hi Julie,
Thanks for following up. In my environment, with the msexchHideFromAddressLists attribute set to true, the user is not returned in Delve, but is still returned in the SharePoint modern people search. So I'm afraid that simply setting this attribute is not working correctly in my environment.

JoyZ 18,041 Reputation points

2022-02-25T01:30:16.807+00:00

@Matthew Lamb ，

Please check if other users have the same issue with the msexchHideFromAddressLists property set to true?

You could also create a test user in on-premise AD, set the related property, sync it to azure ad to compare the result.

Marian Buruiană @Logicnet Solution 1 Reputation point

2022-02-26T11:24:50.487+00:00

Hi Julie, i have the same "problem" as Matthew, you have another solution for us to hide users in SharePoint modern people search ? It's about Sharepoint Online (O365).

Also i try to create a new sharpoint online and to create a new policy (only for one domain)

Matthew Lamb 1 Reputation point

2022-03-17T12:29:02.61+00:00

@JulieWang-MSFT - I have done some more testing. This problem is occuring on multiple user accounts. I have removed them from the sync from on-premises and deleted their user profiles from the SharePoint User Profile store. The users no longer appear in Delve, or in the Classic SharePoint search center (even with no filters set on the web part). But, they are still appearing in the modern SharePoint search, several weeks later.
Does the modern search page have an additional level of caching or something, that we can reset? I have no idea where it is still getting these user results from.
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