After changing AD domains Outlook autocomplete breaks.

C

C7J0yc3

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 27, 2009
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So here is the situation. We have a client that was on SBS 2003. We migrated them to Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2007 Standard. We built a whole new domain from the ground up, new AD, new Exchange, nothing was migrated from the old domain. We then went around and joined everyone's PC to the new domain. After this change we noticed that some users were having an issue sending email internally when using an autocomplete. If you sent to [email protected] it works fine, if you go to the global address book and click their name it works fine. When reading the NDR it says it can't find the user in the exchange orginization and then tells us cn=user,dc=first exchange group,dc=old,dc=domain. So we know that for some reason the autocompletes are pointing at the old server even though they are pointed at the new server with a new outlook profile. So we do some research and find that the .NK2 file may be to blame, so we run around deleting all .NK2 files. It fixes the issue for about a day then comes right back. We thought there may be some issue with the fact that the PC was at one point on the old network, so we took one of the spare laptops they had, installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Professional and Office 2010 on it and set it up with one of the users having the issue. Worked for about a week and still a problem.

We have completely removed the old server from the network. It has been reformatted, the RAID array rebuilt, and reporpoised as a backup storage server. I was thinking maybe an exchange connector, however the exchange server was not built in the old environment at all. We built everything at our office and then brought the server on site the day of the changeover.

Any ideas?
 
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I'm guessing people are replying to old email. You can't do that. That's one of the problems with ditching exchange and redeploying, all old addresses won't work right.

If someone opens the GAL and selects a recipient, you should be fine. If someone now sends an email and then someone replies, also fine. If you reply to old mail and then get that cached in your NK2 file, you will have issues.
 
did you re-use their existing computer profiles and migrate those to the new domain? or did they get new profiles?

was all the old email, from the old domain, migrated to the new Exchange?

and how do you porpois something? let alone reporpois it? :p
 
j-sta said:
did you re-use their existing computer profiles and migrate those to the new domain? or did they get new profiles?
Click to expand...

They got all new computer profiles, just had their My Documents moved over.

was all the old email, from the old domain, migrated to the new Exchange?
Click to expand...

The old email was put into a PST via exmerge and mounted on their PC. The first thing we told them was not to reply to old mail, start new chains and they state that it happens on both old and new mail, but not all the time. Sometimes they will start a new message and use an autocomplete and it works, other times it flops.
 
They got all new computer profiles, just had their My Documents moved over.
Click to expand...

Did you also move their .NK2 files as well? It's usually stored in %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. That's where their cached e-mail addresses are stored so users don't have to keep retyping the "same" thing or use the global address book...

Some users kick you in the balls if you don't export that out of their old machines because they don't save their external e-mail addresses in their Contacts...
 
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It's their NK2 files. You can grab then from the old profile and move them to the new profile. Or, do what I do, tell them that's a cache and not an address book!
 
They need to delete the people internal that are in the drop down boxes. We had this issue because it is looking for the old server. Once you get these autocompletes gone the problem is gone.
 
but if all their NK2 files have been deleted, which did temporarily clear up the issue, how could it still be NK2 files?

this is all based on what the OP has said he has tried; and there is mention of deleting all NK2 files.
Not to mention if they got all new profiles, the NK2 files from their old profiles would not have been moved over since they do not exist within the user's "My Documents" folder, which the OP states is the only folder/data that got moved to the new profiles.
 
C7J0yc3 said:
The old email was put into a PST via exmerge and mounted on their PC. The first thing we told them was not to reply to old mail, start new chains and they state that it happens on both old and new mail, but not all the time. Sometimes they will start a new message and use an autocomplete and it works, other times it flops.
Click to expand...

I have a hunch this is the cause of your problem....that they're still replying to "old" e-mail in their inbox, or sent items, or deleted items....and the new NK2 files are populating with the old active directory default address. I know you said you instructed them to not reply to old mail and start new chains...but....this is end users we're talking about, like a 6 year old kid they'll lie to you til they're blue in the face as to what they did and deny doing any wrong.

On the NDRs that bounce back to them...look at the name(s) in the recipient list...double click the name..and look at the full e-mail addy..I bet ya it's the old servers AD address.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
I have a hunch this is the cause of your problem....that they're still replying to "old" e-mail in their inbox, or sent items, or deleted items....and the new NK2 files are populating with the old active directory default address. I know you said you instructed them to not reply to old mail and start new chains...but....this is end users we're talking about, like a 6 year old kid they'll lie to you til they're blue in the face as to what they did and deny doing any wrong.

On the NDRs that bounce back to them...look at the name(s) in the recipient list...double click the name..and look at the full e-mail addy..I bet ya it's the old servers AD address.
Click to expand...


This is exactly what it is. Just like I said in the first post, the users are repopulating their deleted NK2 files via old mail and not realizing it, or not telling. The good news is that this problem will go away in time, but showing people how to delete their cache so they can do it when the problem creeps back up will help a lot.

Eventually they will learn not to reply or reference that old email.
 
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yeah edit the nk2 or just do it for them if not a big office, remove any of the local users
 
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