Outlook autocomplete degrading after Exchange

[ImNotDeadYet]

I'm having trouble nailing down an issue and would like to bounce it off the forum.

We have a client that was using Outlook 2010 with pop3, we migrated him to Hosted Exchange, imported his data, and copied in his old stream_autocomplete file. Everything was good but the autocomplete list has been degrading ever since then. By degrading I mean names have been disappearing in two ways.

1. Just plain gone - used to have 1000 items, now it's just over 500
2. Friendly names that were 'John Smith' are being overwritten with what is configured on that persons email such as 'Shipping Manager'

Both of the above situation result in no longer being able to type "Joh" and have that record pop up.

Unfortunately clients tend to not understand that the autocomplete is not part of their address book/contacts and they become dependent on it.

None of this started until the move to Exchange. I have compared autocomplete cache file backups spanning months and it's a consistent degrade, still getting worse.

One other factor that may be related is the user got a new cell phone, Samsung S7, and we tied it to exchange with ActiveSync. I have always been under the impression that the NK2 and Stream DAT files were their own monsters unrelated to contacts and other such nonsense.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

First...learn never to promise to bring over the nickname cache.
Prior to Outlook 2010, when connected to Exchange, Outlook would keep the nickname cache in the .NK2 file on the local hard drive.
Starting with Outlook 2010, when connected to Exchange, the nickname cache is actually stored up in the users Exchange mailbox. You can swap computers for the user, setup Outlook to their Exchange..and the nickname is still there.

Next input...when moving from mail servers, much of it gets corrupted. When moving from Exchange server to Exchange server...most of it will flat out not work correctly, it will come back NDR. There are properties within the recipients address that are tied to the old Exchange server. Most common with internal addresses.
I suspect much of your issue is due to changing servers...from POP, to Exchange. You'll probably find some relationship with recipients that fall off the cache...but honestly would the client think it's worth several hours of billing time to figure it out?

Just comfort people that it will rebuild quickly for them.

 

[ImNotDeadYet]

Hi, thanks for your response. Autocomplete is indeed one thing I always warn clients about when discussing the migration and reasonable expectations. We're pretty good at dealing with the common issues, mostly just x.500 for inter-organizational contacts, but this one is throwing me for a loop. They were all working after the migration but slowly are disappearing and/or being modified in less useful manners. Normally I would nuke the autocomplete and start over but the particular user is someone that I would like to really try to solve the issue for if possible. Thanks.

 

[TurricanII]

The stream_autocomplete is just an NK2 file - you can copy it to %appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook, rename it to Outlook.nk2 (or whatever the MAPI profile is called) and run this to force it to import it again:

outlook.exe /importnk2

I guess you have gone through the stream_autocomplete or NK2 from OL2010 and removed any X.500 entries from it first using NK2Edit?

I have found that any MAILTO: entries in the NK2 cause an immediate error when trying to send email to them - perhaps delete those.

Another option is to use NK2Edit to export the NK2 to CSV and import them as contacts. At least the user will be able to type 'joh' and have it resolved from their address book, albeit after a short delay. Thereafter it should be back in the Autocomplete list.