Lync and Mavericks Integration

So far, no joy in getting GAL info to populate. Lots of stuff did update in ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Microsoft Lync Data but I don't get any contact info in the Find field that's not in my Contacts yet...

Lots of fixes listed, but I don't see this one mentioned?

The update fixes the following issues:

2909665 Lync for Mac 2011 crashes in a conference call when an attendee drops out
2909671 Additional Lync for Mac 2011 icon is created in the Dock when you upgrade Lync for Mac 2011
2909681 Crash when you disconnect from a conference call by using Lync for Mac 2011
2913447 An update is available for Lync for Mac 2011 to implement missing QoE data
2913463 Initial instant message isn’t stored when a user doesn’t click "Accept" to accept the message in Lync for Mac 2011
2913465 Error message when you make a video call by using Lync for Mac 2011 in a MacBook Air laptop
2913468 Can’t use the DTMF functions in the dial pad during a call in Lync for Mac 2011
2913469 Can’t sign in to Lync for Mac 2011 by using an Office 365 account when the password has more than 16 characters
2913470 Your display name is displayed as a SIP address when you sign in to Lync for Mac 2011
2913477 Delay occurs when you sign in to a Lync for Mac 2011 client that is moved from a corporate network to an external network
2913479 Instant message window closes when Lync for Mac 2011 disconnects from the network

Same here. Pretty pissed off at Microsoft right now. Mavericks has been out for a month and a half now and was in developer previews for months before the release. And they come out with an update that STILL doesn't address a pretty major issue with the product? Are they asleep at the wheel? I guess the one developer they have working on Lync must have gotten burned out just figuring out how to make the product recognize the built-in iSight cams in the 2013 models.

Sheesh! This really puts a damper on our Mavericks rollout. I would even argue that no ability to do lookups is more of an issue than the camera deal. How many people do video conferencing as opposed to simply locating someone and chatting with them?

What seems more pathetic is that they can't piggy back on the Outlook GAL info? Outlook is working fine. I'm testing on a newly imaged 10.9.x Mac and nothing was held over to screw things up either. Well at least they fixed the duplicate Dock icon bug, whew! :)

there seem to have been some changes in camera support, too. the old version wouldn't use the internal camera in any haswell-based macs. the 14.0.7 update seems to have fixed that for the haswell airs, but I'm still having issues with my haswell 15" retina. internal camera works with the lync client, but not the lync web plugin. still getting the 'could not start your video' error from the plugin.

@nkalister I didn't even test the web plugin yet, so thanks for mentioning that. I'll need to take a look.

definitely could use some confirmation on that one mm2270, let me know what you find. also would like confirmation on the thunderbolt display crash, if anyone has the equipment at hand to test. I'd like to open cases on both items with MS today if I can.

@mm2270, wait.. What's that about iSights?

We're just globally rolling out Lync video.. That & the GAL issue would me no Mavericks & no new macs for us.

Yes it's that big of a deal.

Since the Mid 2013 MacBook Airs, and then the Late 2013 MacBook Pro were released, the built in webcam wasn't being recognized in most apps that tried to use it. That included, but not limited to, Lync and Jabber Video. Cisco Jabber Video was updated some weeks ago with an update to address that, and the just released 14.0.7 update for Lync also fixed that. What @nkalister][/url is reporting though is that, while it works in the client, it doesn't seem to be working via the web plug-in, at least not with the Late 2013 MBP.

The GALContacts.db issue unfortunately still isn't addressed, which means anyone setting up Lync fresh will not have a locally synced GAL file to use for lookups. If you know someone's full proper email address, you can type it in and locate them., but if you only have a name, no luck in looking them up, This doesn't apply to anyone who you have pinned already to your contacts list. This also only happens on Mavericks. On Mountain Lion it syncs down fine.

This latter issue is a big problem for us as we're also in the middle of a Lync pilot, getting ready for global rollout very soon, and also almost ready to update our imaging workflow to support Mavericks. We're going to need to figure out some workaround or else hold off on Mavericks and new Macs, which is going to be pretty tough to do.

the workaround for the GAL that AlgirdasR posted is working for us on 10.9.

AlgirdasR wrote:

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)

I also saw AlgirdasR post about this on TechNet, thanks for sharing!
Policy 3 must be the default, because that's what we had in our environment (with no customization). As you said, changing to policy 1 immediately fixed this for our test Mavericks users so far. Our Lync administrators will address this on a per-user basis.

Haven't tested Lync v14.0.7 yet with (default) policy 3, but will report back next week.

Anyone who's using policy 1 noticed a performance hit—on client searches or Lync Server?
I'm assuming the cache option is to minimize server load for GAL lookups.

@seabash.. I'd be interested on that too.

Also, we I guess online only has some issues when offline? Have you seen any difference.

FWIW, we've changed all our clients to use username & password as using Kerberos wasn't downloading the GALContacts.db file.

No dice w/ Lync v14.0.7 and GAL read profile of "3. WebSearchAndFileDownload" on OS X 10.9 (13A603).
Profile 3 is our default for Lync Server user accounts. Still no clue about GAL search performance, since Lync admins have only tested for one user.

@bentoms][/url][/url
We also found that Kerberos auth prevented GAL from caching (pre-OS X 10.9 Macs), and have deferred to un & pw.

Man! Lync has a sordid history w/ Kerberos-integration; 14.0.5 broke Kerberos outright (creating an auth loop); 14.0.6 claimed to fix Kerberos, but required removal of user data, e.g. sip_username, etc, to avoid account lock-outs. We'll see which bugs 14.0.7 fixes and which it introduces.

Microsoft Premier support acknowledged this as a bug, confirmed the work-around by @AlgirdasR][/url][/url][/url (and others) and said the fix will come w/ 14.0.8 (ETA is "March").

We currently have no Lync test environment, but I'll report our performance findings once we start flipping Lync client policy to WebSearchOnly.

Someone here got pretty much the exact same information from our MS support rep. They must have set an official roadmap to get this addressed so they're getting the word out.
Kind of sucks that the real fix won't be until March. I guess we'll need to do the server side changes for now.Better than nothing I suppose.

@seabash & @mm2270, are we creating this will be a Lync 2011 fix & not something in Lync 2014?

Just curious as to the March date.

Also.. we have WebSearchAndFileDownload set, any ideas what differences we'll see client side if we implement There are three types of policies for reading address book: WebSearchOnly?

The macs are only 10% of the overall estate.. so i might have a hard time getting the change put through.. BUT Lync is becoming a key tool for us.

[ Sorry this is turning into a Microsoft support forum. I won't post about this for a whole week; my gift to you ;) ].

@bentoms][/url][/url][/url The support rep only stated this bug will be fixed in the v14.0.8 update, and mentioned March (when I pressed him about it). Not surprising he wouldn't comment on as-yet-unannounced rumors of Office 2014).

Re: WebSearchAndFileDownload, this is the default Lync profile setting, and per @AlgirdasR][/url][/url][/url only the "WebSearchOnly" option appears to work.

Last thing: Communicator 2011 on Mavericks is unaffected; caches the GAL within minutes and returns search results thereafter. Communicator uses OCS and Group Policy to determine AddressBook settings though, while Lync Server 2010+ uses it's own "client policies" mechanism.

@bentoms I'm in the same boat as you. We are mostly a windows house and 90-95% of our clients are using Lync on windows and since they all come from the same Lync server, I can't even ask for the workaround because it would affect all the windows clients as well.

So hopefully that 14.0.8 client comes sooner than later. I work for one of the bigger corporations in the world and we are putting all the pressure we can on microsoft to get it sooner but probably won't do much. But we'll see.

@seabash.. thanks for that..

FWIW, i just updated my rMBP 13" to 10.9.1 & now Lync 14.0.7 crashes when trying to login.. FUN!

oh ffs.. now enabling kerberos has it in a crash loop.. fun!

3 restarts later & i'm working + even happier to have the next week off... 1 hour left!

@nkalister, we are seeing the same issue on our Retina MacBook Pros with 2 Thunderbolt displays.

When the Macs are plugged in to both displays Lync 14.0.7 crashes at startup.

We are seeing this issue as well. Hope the 14.0.8 comes soon and actually fixes it.

Also, first time login to Lync on Mavericks takes roughly 8-10 minutes. After that it loads pretty speedily. Anyone else seeing that too?

@axnessj - Login time on Mavericks for us under either version 14.0.6 or 14.0.7 is fairly quick. Only ~5 seconds, not minutes. Do you have Kerberos enabled in the settings? I've seen that drag the login time down considerably, sometimes even causing login to fail altogether.

For us, we're going forward I think with turning on the server side setting outlined above. In testing, the speed difference between searching against a local file or web based address book was so negligible there isn't much reason not to do it.
Also, the 14.0.8 (or whatever version it will be) that will supposedly fix this is coming in March according to Microsoft.

We are encountering this issue with a few clients that we work with. My question: does anyone know if there are any negative impacts on Windows systems or Lync clients by making this change to the Lync server infrastructure? As has been mentioned before, most of the systems that we are supporting are Windows systems, so it's a hard sell to make a change to improve the Mac client experience if it causes any changes in behavior for Windows.

Thanks in advance.

Create a new lync policy that allows web search only, apply to AD gourp with your mac users in.

This will not then affect your windows users.