XADM: Global Address List Only Displays Contents of One Address Book View Container (260192)

SYMPTOMS

When you enable a Container Level Search control for Address Book Views (ABV) according the following article,

182902 XADM: How To Setup Container Level Search Control

a mailbox is a member of more than one ABV container, and the Primary Microsoft Windows NT account of this mailbox has Search control permissions on all ABV containers for which they are a member.

When this user logs on to the mailbox and views the contents of the Global Address List, the user may expect to see the contents of all ABV containers for which their mailbox is a member. The user can still view the contents of all ABV containers by specifically choosing this ABV container from the list in the Outlook Address Book; however, the Global Address List only displays the contents of one ABV container where this mailbox resides.

CAUSE

This behavior is by design.

If you enable the Container Level Search control, a user can only see the contents of the largest ABV container in the Global Address List for which they are a member.

MORE INFORMATION

In this example, an Exchange organization has two ABVs. One is called "ABV-Office" (without quotation marks), and the other is called "ABV-Dept" (without quotation marks). ABV-Office is sorted by the attribute Office, and this ABV contains an ABV container that has a grouping value of "SEATTLE" (without quotation marks). ABV-Dept is sorted by the Department attribute, and it contains an ABV container that has a grouping value of "MARKETING" (without quotation marks).

If a mailbox has an Office attribute of SEATTLE and a Department attribute of MARKETING, this mailbox is displayed in both ABV containers. Assuming that there are more employees in the SEATTLE office than in the MARKETING department, the user who logs on to this mailbox sees the contents of the ABV container that has a grouping value of SEATTLE in the Global Address List because this container has a larger membership than the ABV container that is grouped by MARKETING.