Troubleshooting Offline Address Books

 

This topic discusses best practices for troubleshooting problems related to offline address book downloads. It provides details on how to decipher event log entries by examining the error code and offline address book sequence number, and by comparing the name of address lists on the Exchange server and the Outlook client.

Full Offline Address Book Download

Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Outlook 2003 SP2 always generates an event in the Application event log whenever Outlook performs a full offline address book download. If such a download fails for any reason, Outlook logs event ID 27 with an event type of error and a description that contains information about the failure. In this case, the logged event also includes a result error code that you can use to help isolate the problem.

The following is an example of the hexadecimal data portion of an event log entry logged when the user started Outlook 2003 for the first time in Cached Exchange Mode:

0000: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0008: 00 00 00 00 75 00 00 00   ....u...
0010: 75 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   u.......
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: e9 fd 00 00 02 a3 48 9b   éý...£H?
0028: ba 12 c4 01 00 00 00 00   º.Ä.....
0030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0038: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0048: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0058: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0068: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0078: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0090: 5c 00 47 00 6c 00 6f 00   \.G.l.o.
0098: 62 00 61 00 6c 00 20 00   b.a.l. .
00a0: 41 00 64 00 64 00 72 00   A.d.d.r.
00a8: 65 00 73 00 73 00 20 00   e.s.s. .
00b0: 4c 00 69 00 73 00 74 00   L.i.s.t.
00b8: 00 00 00 00 65 38 31 30   ....e810
00c0: 35 35 61 38 2d 62 64 38   55a8-bd8
00c8: 38 2d 34 33 34 62 2d 39   8-434b-9
00d0: 37 31 37 2d 64 34 33 37   717-d437
00d8: 61 62 34 35 31 35 36 39   ab451569
00e0: 00 65 38 31 30 35 35 61   .e81055a
00e8: 38 2d 62 64 38 38 2d 34   8-bd88-4
00f0: 33 34 62 2d 39 37 31 37   34b-9717
00f8: 2d 64 34 33 37 61 62 34   -d437ab4
0100: 35 31 35 36 39 00         51569

In all offline address book event log entries, the first byte of data contains the error code in hexadecimal. The error code indicates the cause of the full download. In the previous example, the first byte of data is contained in:

0000: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

In this example, the first byte is 01. The following table provides a description of the error codes.

Offline address book error codes

Error code Description

1

You do not have any offline address book files on your computer, or the offline address book files could not be opened.

2

You forced a full download manually.

3

The name of the offline address book could not be obtained on the client. This behavior occurs when you create a new profile.

4

The GUID of the offline address book could not be obtained on the client.

5

The name of the offline address book was missing from the server. A full download is not expected to start or succeed, but it is logged anyway.

6

The GUID of the offline address book was missing from the server. A full download is not expected to start or succeed, but it is logged anyway.

7

The server's offline address book name and the client's offline address book name are different.

8

The server's GUID and the client's GUID are different. This behavior can occur if the server had to regenerate a new offline address book with the same name and discarded the old offline address book files. This can also occur if the Outlook client is moved between different Active Directory® directory service forests.

9

The client's sequence number is larger than that of the server.

0a (10)

You want detailed information in the offline address book, but there is no corresponding offline address book file on your client. This behavior may occur if you manually force a download of the offline address book, and then you clear the Download changes since last Send/Receive check box.

0b (11)

At least one incremental offline address book file was missing from the server.

0c (12)

The sum total of the incremental files to download may not be greater than one-eighth of the full offline address book file.

0d (13)

You have the Allow SRS Full OAB Download registry key set to 1, and your Send/Receive setting was set to always do a full download.

0e (14)

You do not have the locale of the offline address book installed on your system, and you did a manual full download. Typically, Outlook updates the address book either once a month, or when you download manually. Outlook uses these methods to update the address book to avoid a condition that would cause a full download every day.

0f (15)

Applying the incremental file to the offline address book file failed for some reason.

In addition to the result error code, you can gather the following information from the Application event log data:

  • The offline address book sequence number.

  • The server-side address list name that is being used to populate the offline address list.

  • The GUID for the full offline address book file download.

The following table provides examples of some of the descriptions that might appear in these events.

Outlook 2003 event log sample descriptions

Event log entry description field Meaning

"OAB ModDif failed. (Details record in event data)." or "OAB (Offline Address Book) files are invalid. Replaced with stub. (Last errors in event data)."

Indicates that Outlook was unable to perform an incremental offline address book download. When this occurs, Outlook will attempt a full offline address book download.

"Starting OAB Download"

Indicates that a full offline address book download is starting, as well as the cause of the download.

"OAB Download Succeeded"

Indicates that a full offline address book download has completed successfully.

Offline Address Book Sequence Number

Both Outlook and Exchange Server use the offline address book sequence number to determine the offline address book files to be downloaded to Outlook. Depending on the sequence number that is found on the client and on the cumulative size of the differential files, either a differential download or a full download of the offline address book occurs. You can verify the sequence numbers by examining the data portion of the logged event.

The offline address book error code is found on the first line of the event data (offset 0001). The offline address book sequence numbers for the client and the server are found on the second line of the event log data (offset 0008). The following is an example of such data:

0000: 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0008: 9b 00 00 00 9a 00 00 00   ........

In this example, the address book error code is 09, or simply 9. As shown in the first table in this topic, this error code indicates that the client's sequence number is larger than the server's sequence number. The client sequence number is contained in the first four bytes (9b in this example), and the server sequence number is in the second four bytes (9a in this example).

Server-Side Address List Name

In a scenario where the client's offline address book and Exchange Server computer's offline address list names are mismatched or missing, a full offline address book download occurs. In this case, the generated result error code is 3, 5, or 7. You can verify the offline address book (and offline address list) name by examining the data portion of the logged event.

The name of the list that the Exchange Server is using to populate the offline address list on the server can be found starting on the nineteenth line of the event data (offset 0090). The name of the list that Outlook is using can be found starting on the twenty-fourth line of the event data (offset 00b8). The following is an example of such data:

0090: 5c 00 47 00 6c 00 6f 00   \.G.l.o.
0098: 62 00 61 00 6c 00 20 00   b.a.l. .
00a0: 41 00 64 00 64 00 72 00   A.d.d.r.
00a8: 65 00 73 00 73 00 20 00   e.s.s. .
00b0: 4c 00 69 00 73 00 74 00   L.i.s.t.
00b8: 00 00 5c 00 47 00 6c 00   .\.G.l.
00c0: 6f 00 62 00 61 00 6c 00    o.b.a.l.
00c8: 20 00 41 00 64 00 64 00   .A.d.d.
00d0: 72 00 65 00 73 00 73 00   r.e.s.s.
00d8: 20 00 4c 00 69 00 73 00   .L.i.s.
00e0: 74 00 00 00 38 62 32 61   t...e810

In this example, the default global address list (GAL) is being used for the offline address list. To confirm that this is the correct address list, see How to View the Name of an Offline Address List.

Offline Address Book GUID

In addition to using matched address list names, both Exchange and Outlook use a matching GUID to make sure that they stay synchronized. In the scenario where Outlook's offline address book GUID does not match the GUID used by the Exchange Server computer, a full offline address book download occurs. The generated offline address book result error code is 4, 6, or 8. You can verify the offline address book GUID by examining the event data.

The GUID used by the Exchange Server starts at offset 00b8. The GUID used by Outlook starts at offset 00e0. The following is an example of such data:

00b8: 00 00 00 00 65 38 31 30   ....e810
00c0: 35 35 61 38 2d 62 64 38   55a8-bd8
00c8: 38 2d 34 33 34 62 2d 39   8-434b-9
00d0: 37 31 37 2d 64 34 33 37   717-d437
00d8: 61 62 34 35 31 35 36 39   ab451569
00e0: 00 65 38 31 30 35 35 61   .e81055a
00e8: 38 2d 62 64 38 38 2d 34   8-bd88-4
00f0: 33 34 62 2d 39 37 31 37   34b-9717
00f8: 2d 64 34 33 37 61 62 34   -d437ab4
0100: 35 31 35 36 39 00            51569

If the GUIDs of the Outlook offline address book and the Exchange Server computer do not match, you need to delete the existing offline address book files and perform a full offline address book download. Alternatively, you can stage the files. For information about staging the files, see "Offline Address Book Staging" in Deployment Scenarios for Outlook 2003.