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This is a blog for John Weber. One of my joys in life is helping others get ahead in life. Content here will be focused on that from this date forward. John was a Skype for Business MVP (2015-2018) - before that, a Lync Server MVP (2010-2014). I used to write a variety of articles (https://tsoorad.blogspot.com) on technical issues with a smattering of other interests. I have a variety of certifications dating back to Novell CNE and working up through the Microsoft MCP stack to MCITP multiple times. FWIW, I am on my third career - ex-USMC, retired US Army. I have a fancy MBA. The opinions expressed on this blog are mine and mine alone.

2011/02/11

Lync not searching GALContacts.db

We all expect the Lync client to just give us the name of the contact right after we type in the first few letters of the contact name.  But what happens when it does not?  For some strange reason, yesterday, right after an initial deployment of the first pool server, the clients would not search the GAL.  We patiently waited for the db file to arrive (overnight – it just worked out that way).  Nothing.  No galcontacts.db.  We created the initial 10 users and ran update-csaddressbook.  Nothing.

The really strange part is after a  log off/login cycle – with a full client exit, we did get the galcontacts.db file along with the idx, but the client did NOTHING.  Then it started just giving me the “A” list – which is the two builtins – Audio Test Service & Announcement Service – as shown…

image

But no real user.  You could not even type in the full SIP URI and get the user.  So I removed the db and idx file, logged back in, and then I could use the manual method.  Put the db and idx back in place, the situation returned.   Odd.

Long story short, there was something wrong with that galcontacts.db and galcontacts.db.idx pair.  We forced a new gal download by removing the existing files, closing the client completely, and setting the client to ignore the gal download delay by setting the registry as shown…

reg add HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator /v GalDownloadInitialDelay /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

After getting a new GAL, everything was fine. 

4 comments:

Curtiss said...

so you had to do this on each lync client?

tsoorad said...

Yes, the file deletions were each client. The reg change I pushed from logon script.

Network Chimp said...

I'm running into the same weirdness. Tried your work around and that didn't work. I went so far as to rename the whole dir to sip:_OLD and it recreated. Still can't find anyone. I also get a message that the Lync client cannot connect to Exchange. Any ideas?

tsoorad said...

If Lync is having issues with auth to Exchange, are you sure you are using the correct perms to connect to Lync?
I have also nuked the entire ABS setup on the file share to resolve GAL issues, but that would be a final effort.
Does this affect all clients or just one?

test 02 Feb

this is a test it’s only a test this should be a picture