Lync and Mavericks Integration

I haven't done a clean install of Lync into Mavericks at this point, just upgrades to Mavericks from 10.8. Both my GalContacts.db and GalContacts.db.idx have been updating fine, did so this morning infact. Lync 14.0.6 and Lync 2013 Server. So not much help, but info about one that is working at least. Haven't moved up many systems to Mavericks yet.

I've seen this issue here in our environment and we resolved it by specifying a specific AD controller for Outlook to talk to. It's not a primary controller, and it's not the one we bind our Macs to, rather it's one configured specifically to do just AD lookups for other apps. Usually, once a user connects for the first time and it's properly configured, it takes about an hour for the GAL to download to the client.

This Lync 2011 behavior is not exclusive to Mavericks or Lync 2013 Server—we have this GAL-creation issue on Mt Lion and running Lync 2010 Server. We're still using Lync 2011 v14.0.4 in production, since v14.0.5 broke AD-auth and v14.0.6 tends to lock-out AD accounts.

Anyone have a more detail on the specific events that trigger creation of GALContacts.db and GALContacts.db.idx files? I've sifted thru pages and pages of Lync log files, but don't see a "smoking gun".

I've confirmed that copying said files to other Macs (correcting user permissions, of course) allows users to immediately lookup names in Lync. I realize this is a stop-gap until the files are eventually updated. Seems like Lync eventually builds this these cache files—after a number of days pass.

P.S. Sorry to add to this Microsoft-specific issue on JAMFnation

What about removing Lync and the "~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data/ folder (backup somewhere) and the ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Lync.plist?
Install it again and configure. Seems it should rebuild the account.

Install it again and configure. Seems it should rebuild the account.

The issue I'm talking about occurs on freshly-imaged Macs with first-launch Lync 2011 users: they cannot perform GAL contact lookups until some inordinate amount of time has passed (days, weeks or longer).

I'll report on how my kludge works; packaging-up GALContacts.db and GALContacts.db.idx, which reside here...
/Users/johndoe/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data/sip_john.doe@mycompany.com

Is there any way your images have any MS cache/plists in them?
What if you just take a Mac out of the box, don't image it, and then install/config Lync? Does that work?
I've not seen this issue with either Outlook or Lync (yet).
The files are rather large here "(~/Docs/MUD/Microsoft Lync Data" is 463MB on mine as an example once downloaded).

I'm sure you've already done so, but:
Quit Outlook 2011, if Open. This is supposed to rebuild those files you need.
Navigate to ~/Library/Caches/Outlook/Main Identity/# (the "#" is a number, depending on how many identities you have created)
Move the # folder to the trash
Restart Outlook and let the new data download.
Also, quit Lync, remove:
~/Library/Caches/com.microsoft.Lync/

I had this issue when using Kerberos, can you try username & password?

We've tried both methods and still no luck. Based on the SR we have with MSFT, they don't support Mavericks yet and are aware of the issues and trying to release an update soon.

Well, it's not inherently incompatible as we have a lot of test Macs running Office 14.3.8 and Lync 14.0.6 with Mavericks successfully. There are a lot of variables of course so it could be in another area of your company setup. Hopefully you get it sorted soon.

@boettchs does your Lync setup creates a working ContactsGAL.db file on a fresh image with Mavericks ?

I can confirm the above issues with Lync 2011. If the user had Lync running on Mountain Lion and then upgraded to Mavericks the GAL files are present but will no longer update. If you perform a fresh install of Mavericks and a fresh install of Lync 2011 14.0.6 on a machine the GalContacts.db & GalContacts.db.idx will not create leaving you with no address book.

I can confirm this issue has resided in all the Developer releases of Mavericks and the official release. I have opened a ticket with Microsoft for them to look at it. I believe they will need to rework their client to resolve this issue.

^ Ditto for us here with Lync 2011. Same exact situation. The GALContacts.db doesn't get pulled down with a fresh install and setup, or doesn't get updated with an existing install, once the Mac is running Mavericks.

I am missing something here.
I dont have a GALContacts.db, yet I can look up people I have never chatted before, what is the GALContacts.db needed for?

The file is used for lookups, so if you're not sure of a person's email address, typing part of their name in the search field pulls up results you can scan through. If you know someone's email address i think it allows you to chat with them anyway, just by typing in that address. Its more if you need to search. In a huge organization, not being able to search would be a problem

OK, so I went and imaged a Mac clean with 10.8.5. Configured Lync and it created the files instantly.
Blew away the whole folder on a 10.9 Mac (~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data/) and relaunched Lync (14.0.6). All but those two files were created.

I reckon I updated this (10.9) Mac and that's why those files remained and worked.
So it does appear that a clean install of 10.9/Lync fails to create the needed .db and .db.idx files.
My bad for not catching this Mac was upgraded.

I have never chatted with my CEO and i type the first 4 characters of her last name in, and it pulls up all the people that have those letters in their last name including her. Maybe the db is just for offline use in outlook, and Lync has little use for a db as its probably doing some sort of live lookup in the tool these days.

Well, since my Mac is connected to the network at the time I do any tests, if it was true its only using it for offline purposes, why would search fail for me, and presumably others here? I don't think the db is just for offline use. I think it uses it first and foremost for lookups and periodically copies a new version down from the servers to keep everything synced.
I can't explain why you're able to search for someone without that file, but if that isn't there for us, search fails, unless I put the entire email address in. Can't explain the difference. Maybe its related to how your org has the Lync server set up.

ok, so i found the DB with GalContacts.db, and Find is pretty literal in the case sensitivity. and mine is old from september 17 so i would assume its not updating too. Sorry i now understand where you are coming from.

Do those with no db files showing have an entry in their Outlook: Outlook/Prefs/Accounts/Advanced/Server field? I just noticed this was not populated on the current Mac I'm using. I'm going to test this now on another Mac on a client site where this is populated. See if that makes a difference.

Are you authenticating via Kerberos or Username & password?

Ours fails to update on any Mac OS if via Kerberos (despite kerberizing the IIS on the Lync server).

For us, contacts wouldn't update & we couldn't see people's pictures.

I've tried both authentication methods but have not been able to get the results i want with the ContactsGAL.db . It is a very annoying issue and from what i've heard in our telephony/Lync team, MSFT has not provided a possible coming resolution -_- !

This is a known issue with the Lync 2011 client and OSX 10.9. Microsoft is working on a 14.0.7 patch to address this. Everyone will need to wait until Microsoft releases the update to the client to fix the issue.

@Laubach Did you get confirmation from Microsoft that 14.0.7 is definitely being worked on/released? Just wondering because we are experiencing the same issue with Mavericks and Lync.

Until the update arrives, there is a workaround.

There are three types of policies for reading address book:
1. WebSearchOnly (when cache is not built locally on client)
2. FileDownloadOnly (when cache is built on client - in this case something in Mavericks prevents Lync to do it)
3. WebSearchAndFileDownload (if client does not support caching, e.g. mobile app, it will be using websearch in other way - filedownload)

In our case it was the 3rd one in our settings and it was not possible to find contacts, unless we used full email address. Setting this policy to 1st fixed the issue.

You can set this policy with this command:
Set-CsClientPolicy -Identity Global -AddressBookAvailability WebSearchOnly

If you are creating a new policy, you also need to run grant command. More information about commands: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg398300(v=ocs.14).aspx

After this is done, client needs to quit Lync and launch it again - it works instantly.

14.0.7 is out today. I'm seeing one new bug- lync crashes every time I connect a mac to a thunderbolt display, both on 10.9 and 10.8.5. Anyone else seeing that?