Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book Not Updating: Fix the Error

Are you looking for a solution to fix the error ‘Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book not updating automatically’? If yes then, you are absolutely at the correct page. Many people using Outlook account is facing similar problem worldwide. There are different methods to resolve this. You can find the manual solutions to fix this in this article. Therefore read the following paragraphs for getting answers to all your queries related to MS Outlook OAB files not updating issue.

Global Address List Not Updating: Picture This Out!

“I am using the Exchange Server 2010, which is not providing me a new email id that I have made to clients. Two days ago, I configured a new email address and it was getting displayed in OWA. But, now I am not getting the id displayed in Outlook 2010 email client. So, I worked in the cached mode trying to get this work by first going to the Exchange server and then, synchronizing GAL. After all this, I opened MS Outlook 2010 and then, tried to download address book manually. Still, all was invisible! Can anyone help me in resolving Offline Address Book (.oab file) is not updating in cached mode on MS Outlook 2010?”

The above-mentioned scenario explains all about the error. Now it is the time to resolve it. So let’s get started with resolution procedure to update Offline Address Book files in Exchange Server 2010 using a manual method.

Fix Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book Not Updating on Server Manually

There are different ways to solve Outlook OAB files not updating problem in Exchange Server. Here we discuss various available solutions.

Note: Before doing these settings on Exchange account, it is recommanded to take OAB archive locally for safty of your address book data. The OAB Converter software can be used to easily backup OAB files in different file format in a trouble free manner.

1. Manually Update Outlook

Follow the commands given below for manually updating OAB files in different versions of Outlook account.

• For Outlook 2010 & Outlook 2013
Send/Receive > Send/Receive Groups > Download Address Book
• For Outlook 2007 & below versions
Tools > Send/Receive > Download Address Book

The Outlook will only automatically download the updates only when the size of the changes in it is more than 12.5% (i.e, one-eighth) of the entire size of Offline Address Book file. In such cases, the entire OAB file is being downloaded once again.

2. Alter the OAB update frequency in MS Outlook

To resolve Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book not updating problem, we can increase the frequency of OAB updation manually. In order to change the default update interval of OAB files from 24 hours to a more higher frequency, the user needs to specify a new Send/Receive group in Outlook account.

1. Open Send/Receive Groups tab.
2. Press CTRL+ALT+S.
• In Outlook 2010 & Outlook 2013
Send/Receive > Send/Receive Groups > Define Send/Receive Groups
• Outlook 2007 & below versions
Tools > Send/Receive > Send/Receive Settings > Define Send/Receive Groups
3. Press New button.
4. Name the Send/Receive group.
5. Choose the Exchange account and enable: ‘Include the selected account in this group’.
6. Account Option > Disable all options expect ‘Download offline address book’.
7. To go back to Send/Receive Groups dialog, hit on Ok.
8. Choose the currently created Send/Receive group.
9. Now, Change all the options to Disable except the: Schedule an automatic send/receive every x minutes.
• The user can set preferred interval (not too less).

3. Fix Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book Not Updating on Server

To resolve ‘Exchange Server Global Address List not updating Outlook 2016, 2013’ problem, one needs to properly configure OAB when you are in Outlook cached Exchange mode. To do this, go through following set of instructions:

1. Hit on Start button and then on Run
2. Type Regedit text in the Open field and hit on OK.
3. Locate and click for selection of the following keys:
• Outlook 2003
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook
• Outlook 2007
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook
• Outlook 2010
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook
• Outlook 2013
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook
4. Go to Edit >> New >> DWORD value
5. Type DownloadOAB and click OK
6. Right-click on DownloadOAB from the right pane and hit on Modify
7. Type the value that you want for DWORD and click OK
8. Open the Registry menu and then hit on Exit option to continue with procedure of fixing the error: Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book not updating Outlook 2007

Now you will be able to set ‘DownloadOAB’ value with any one of the below-listed value:

• 0 - The file does not download automatically
• 1 - Utilize full items of Offline Address Book in download mode. By default, this value is enabled
• 2 - Download OAB in the download mode but, store a differential update in Header only mode.
• 3 - Download the file and a differential update in any one of the following modes:
• Download Headers
• Download Headers and then, full items
• Download Full items

Time to Finish Up

In this article, we come across with the scenarios related to Outlook OAB updating in Exchange 2010. As OAB file is used by Microsoft in Outlook with Exchange Server, which incorporates all the email address and contact details of the user. However, this application may get fail due to many services issue. One such error is discussed here, i.e. the Exchange 2010 Offline Address Book not updating automatically. This issue occurs due to improper synchronization between the server and email client. Few changes in existing settings are to be made for getting rid of this error message. So, in this blog, one is going to find all those changes that are required to fix this error quickly.