[MacTUG] BES issues with Outlook 2011 contacts

[Trevor Bain]

I thought I'd better send out a heads up - and ask how widespread this issue is (i.e. have others seen this?). It's a little hard to describe but I'll do my best:

We have at least one BES user who synchronizes his Exchange contacts with his BlackBerry and uses Outlook 2011 as a desktop client. The issue is ... for any contact that is also in the Exchange Global Address List (GAL) the email field does not appear on the blackberry as part of the contact. 

As an example, another Connect user has my full contact information entered as a local contact in their Exchange/Connect account and they use Outlook 2011 as a desktop. When that information is synchronized back to Exchange all is well but when the data is synchronized to the BlackBerry (via the BES), the contact will be synchronized but my email address will be missing. The full contact information appears in Outlook 2011, OWA, Outlook (Windows) but on the Blackberry, the email address is missing (other elements of the contact are present). 

We have been able to replicate this issue. RIM Tech Support indicated that this is a known issue where clients synchronize their contacts with Exchange using Outlook 2011 and then have those contact synchronized with their BB device using a BES account. They have stated that Outlook 2011 is not (yet) a supported desktop client (it almost looks like Outlook 2011 is synchronizing the email address in an attribute field where the BES can't find it but Outlook and OWA can). 

The workaround is to use the "lookup" option when emailing a UW contact on your BB (i.e. do not use the local contact entry). If no match is found in the lookup, the contact is not in the GAL and you can use the BB contact.

Trevor

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Trevor Bain, IST
University of Waterloo
519-888-4567 x33738
etbain at uwaterloo.ca
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