Outlook 2013 takes up to 30 minutes to manually download Offline Address Book files. Applies to: Outlook 2013. When Microsoft Outlook 2013 is connected to a Microsoft Exchange Server computer through an external connection, Outlook 2013 may take as long as 30 minutes to manually download the Offline Address Book (.oab) files. If your email account is configured so that you can use Outlook Web Access, or OWA, to send and receive email, you can also use the Web-based application to download your global address book. We are currently using exchange 2013 and most users have outlook 2010, there are a few users that have outlook 2013. When we make a change in AD or Exchange the outlook 2010 global address books update immediately and automatically, but the outlook 2013 users do not.
-->Applies to: Exchange Server 2013
Recipients (which include users, resources, contacts, and groups) are any mail-enabled object in Active Directory to which Microsoft Exchange can deliver or route messages. For a recipient to send or receive email messages, the recipient must have an email address. Address books are the method by which users find each other in order to send email. There are many different methods for organizing address books. See Key terminology for detailed descriptions of address book features in Exchange Server 2013.
Key terminology
The following terms define the core components associated with email addresses and address books in Exchange 2013.
address book policies:
Address book policies (ABPs) allow you to segment users into specific groups to provide customized views of your organization's global address list (GAL). When creating an ABP, you assign a GAL, an offline address book (OAB), a room list, and one or more address lists to the policy. You can then assign the ABP to mailbox users, providing them with access to a customized GAL in Outlook and Outlook Web App. The goal is to provide a simpler mechanism to accomplish GAL segmentation for on-premises organizations that require multiple GALs.
address lists:
An address list is a subset of a GAL. Each address list is a collection of one or more types of mail-enabled recipients (for example, users, contacts, groups, public folders, conferencing, and other resources). You can use address lists to organize recipients and resources, making it easier for users to find the recipients and resources they need. Address lists are updated dynamically. Therefore, when new recipients are added to your organization, they're automatically added to the appropriate address lists.
email address policies:
Email address policies generate the primary and secondary email addresses for your recipients so they can receive and send email. By default, Exchange contains an email address policy for every mail-enabled user.
hierarchical address books
The hierarchical address book (HAB) enables end users to look for recipients in their address book using an organizational hierarchy, such as seniority or management structure. Normally, users are limited to the default GAL and its associated recipient properties and the structure of the GAL often doesn't accurately reflect the management or seniority relationships for recipients in your organization. Being able to customize an HAB that maps to your organization's unique business structure provides your users with an efficient method for locating internal recipients.
offline address books
An offline address book (OAB) is a copy of a collection of address lists that has been downloaded so that a Microsoft Outlook user can access the information it contains while disconnected from the server.
Email address and address book documentation
The following table contains links to topics that will help you learn about and manage email addresses and address books in Exchange 2013.
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
Learn more about address lists and GALs as methods for organizing your recipients for easy end user access. | |
Learn more about how to separate your address lists and GALs into separate virtual organizations. | |
Learn more about customizing the address cards in Outlook. | |
Learn more about proxy email addresses to make recipients more discoverable. | |
Learn more about how to customize the GAL and address lists to meet your organization's unique business structure. | |
Learn more about providing users with offline access to your organization's address lists. |
Outlook 2013 Download Address Book Free
Sometimes, when the Outlook users try to download Outlook Offline address book then they fail to download the OAB file due to some issues and they receive Outlook 2016 OAB download failed error. Before starting the downloading of OAB file, there is a need to check OAB generation and publishing process to prevent the Outlook offline address book(.oab) download failure error. Therefore, in this post, we are going to discuss that how a user can check the Outlook OAB generation and publishing process.
Outlook OAB Generation And Publishing Process
Checking of Outlook OAB generation make sure that Offline address book (OAB) has been generating successfully and publishing process check that OAB has been published at the place where the MS Outlook user is expecting to find it.
How To Check OAB Generation?
From the properties of the Outlook OAB file, a user can check which server is the generating OAB. In the Exchange Management Console (EMC), this property is known as “Generating server” and in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), a user needs to look for the “server” attribute.
Now, check the application event log. The flow of events shows which version of OAB has created successfully and whose Exchange shows Outlook OAB download failed error.
After Outlook OAB generation has finished, the server publishes the Outlook OAB to the public folder database. From that folder user can check exchange 2010/2013 offline address book OAB download failed error.
Methods of OAB Publishing and removing OAB download error problem
Outlook 2013 Download Address Book Missing
Method 1: Web-based distribution of the OAB
- Enter the name of server, which creates OAB file into Internet Explorer.
- After entering the Exchange OAB directory, the GUIDs of the OABs and creation time stamps appear on the screen.
- To confirm that Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 clients are using Web Based Distribution, hold Ctrl key and right-click on the Outlook icon, then click on Test Email AutoConfiguraion. When a user check the “Test E – Mail Autoconfiguration” in Outlook and check on which URL the Outlook user is looking for the OAB, he will see which CAS server MS Outlook will query and also which OAB GUID it is looking for on the CAS file share.
- The CAS server uses the “Microsoft Exchange File Distribution” service to export the OAB from the mailbox server and save the OAB in the path mentioned below:
- If a user generates a new OAB by troubleshooting and it generated on the mailbox server, but is not available on the CAS server then use the below mentioned CommandLet to done the re-distribution of the OAB file:
“Update-FileDistributionService –Identity –Type OAB”
- When a user check the use AutoDiscover option then it generate OAB file URL to the client.
- Another important property is the size of the Outlook OAB file in that folder. The OAB file is compressed and downloaded by the MS Outlook user in a compressed format and the user extracts the OAB file afterward. Therefore, the compressed file size should be meaningful and match with GAL size. This will recover OAB by rectifying Outlook (Offline Address Book) OAB download failed error.
The above Method can recover file from exchange offline address book(.oab) download error issue.
Method 2: Public Folder Distribution Of OAB
- The mailbox server uses the public store for publishing the OAB.
- The users can use a tool MFCMAPI to open the Outlook OAB folder within a public folder and check if the Outlook OAB files they want to see are present in good shape.
- For example, OAB file present in OAB version4 folder.
- By double-clicking OAB version4 folder, one can see the items that OAB contains.
Conclusion
Outlook Offline address book stores all the properties of Outlook users such as email address, mobile number, name of the user and other contact information of the Outlook clients. Sometimes, the user of Outlook faces Outlook 2003/2007/2010/2013 and exchange 2010/2013 offline address book (.oab) download failed error, when they try to download the Outlook OAB file. This error can be avoided by checking OAB generation process and publishing process. There are two methods available for OAB publishing i.e. Web-based distribution of OAB file and public folder distribution.