Outlook OAB Download Failed Error Solution

Written By Nimisha Ramesh

Approved By Mack John

Published On February 7th, 2017

Reading Time 4 Minutes Reading

How to Remove Outlook OAB Download Failed Error

Sometimes, when the Outlook users try to download Outlook Offline address book then they fail to download the OAB file due to some issues and they receive Outlook 2016 OAB download failed error. Before starting the downloading of OAB file, there is a need to check OAB generation and publishing process to prevent the Outlook offline address book(.oab) download failure error. Therefore, in this post, we are going to discuss that how a user can check the Outlook OAB generation and publishing process.

Outlook OAB Generation And Publishing Process

Checking of Outlook OAB generation make sure that Offline address book (OAB) has been generating successfully and publishing process check that OAB has been published at the place where the MS Outlook user is expecting to find it.

How To Check OAB Generation?

From the properties of the Outlook OAB file, a user can check which server is the generating OAB. In the Exchange Management Console (EMC), this property is known as “Generating server” and in the Exchange Management Shell (EMS), a user needs to look for the “server” attribute.
Now, check the application event log. The flow of events shows which version of OAB has created successfully and whose Exchange shows Outlook OAB download failed error.

After Outlook OAB generation has finished, the server publishes the Outlook OAB to the public folder database. From that folder user can check exchange 2010/2013 offline address book OAB download failed error.

Methods of OAB Publishing and removing OAB download error problem

Method 1: Web-based distribution of the OAB

Enter the name of server, which creates OAB file into Internet Explorer.

After entering the Exchange OAB directory, the GUIDs of the OABs and creation time stamps appear on the screen.

To confirm that Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010 clients are using Web Based Distribution, hold Ctrl key and right-click on the Outlook icon, then click on Test Email AutoConfiguraion. When a user check the “Test E – Mail Autoconfiguration” in Outlook and check on which URL the Outlook user is looking for the OAB, he will see which CAS server MS Outlook will query and also which OAB GUID it is looking for on the CAS file share.

The CAS server uses the “Microsoft Exchange File Distribution” service to export the OAB from the mailbox server and save the OAB in the path mentioned below:

If a user generates a new OAB by troubleshooting and it generated on the mailbox server, but is not available on the CAS server then use the below mentioned CommandLet to done the re-distribution of the OAB file:
“Update-FileDistributionService –Identity –Type OAB”

When a user check the use AutoDiscover option then it generate OAB file URL to the client.

Another important property is the size of the Outlook OAB file in that folder. The OAB file is compressed and downloaded by the MS Outlook user in a compressed format and the user extracts the OAB file afterward. Therefore, the compressed file size should be meaningful and match with GAL size. This will recover OAB by rectifying Outlook (Offline Address Book) OAB download failed error.

The above Method can recover file from exchange offline address book(.oab) download error issue.
Method 2: Public Folder Distribution Of OAB

The mailbox server uses the public store for publishing the OAB.

The users can use a tool MFCMAPI to open the Outlook OAB folder within a public folder and check if the Outlook OAB files they want to see are present in good shape.

For example, OAB file present in OAB version4 folder.

By double-clicking OAB version4 folder, one can see the items that OAB contains.

Conclusion

Outlook Offline address book stores all the properties of Outlook users such as email address, mobile number, name of the user and other contact information of the Outlook clients. Sometimes, the user of Outlook faces Outlook 2003/2007/2010/2013 and exchange 2010/2013 offline address book (.oab) download failed error, when they try to download the Outlook OAB file. This error can be avoided by checking OAB generation process and publishing process. There are two methods available for OAB publishing i.e. Web-based distribution of OAB file and public folder distribution.