How to Generate a Full Offline Address Book Download File When a Differences File Cannot Be Generated

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In some cases, although Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 determines that a differences download is more efficient, Exchange Server may be unable to generate a differences file for clients that do not use Offline Address Book version 4 (OAB v4). You can change the default behavior of the offline address book server so that full offline address book downloads are generated when a differences download cannot be generated.

Note

Only Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 clients that run Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) in the Unicode format use OAB v4 (the offline address book format generated by Exchange Server 2003 SP2). This format resolves the issues that prevent the server from generating a differences file. For information about different versions of the offline address book, and the client and server versions used with each, see "Exchange Server 2003 and Office Outlook 2003 Offline Address Book Compatibility" in Deployment Scenarios for Outlook 2003.

Before You Begin

Before you perform this procedure, remember that network traffic and server load is increased with an organization-wide offline address book full download. For information about how to minimize the effect that offline address book downloads have on your network, see "Minimizing Offline Address Book Download Effect on Network" in Using Offline Address Books.

Important

This article contains information about editing the registry. Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to restore the registry, view the "Restore the Registry" Help topic in Regedit.exe or Regedt32.exe.

Procedure

To generate a full offline address book download file when a differences file cannot be generated

  1. On the Exchange server, start Regedit.exe.

  2. Open the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeSA\Parameters

  3. Right-click Parameters, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

  4. For the new value name, type OAL post full if diff fails.

  5. Double-click OAL post full if diff fails. In Value data, type 1. Click OK.

  6. Close the registry editor.

Before you edit the registry, and for information about how to edit the registry, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 256986, "Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry."

For More Information

For more information about when to generate a full offline address book, see "Generating a Full Offline Address Book Download File when a Difference File Cannot be Generated" in Using Offline Address Books.

For more information about the improvements in OAB v4, see "Improvements in Exchange Server 2003 SP3 and Outlook 2003 SP2" in Improvements for Offline Address Books.