Address Book
 

BES 4.0 / Exchange 2000 / 17 BlackBerry 7750's

What I'd like to know is how to use the Global Address book from Exchange instead of having to add the addresses to individuals Contact lists. Right now I have to go into the users address book and add the contacts from the Global Address book and then sync up the BB device. Is there a way to just let the BB device use the Global Address book and not have to add the addresses to the contact lists, basically just like using Outlook?

Thanks.

I don't think so. Most businesses GAB is way to large to try to sync up to the device.

GAB doesnt sync. You should be able to do a lookup of people on the GAB from the blackberry unit.

With our old devices, my users were able to address and type e-mails when they were out of coverage and the mail would be sent as soon as coverage resumed. They're complaining that they can't do this anymore with recepients in the GAL because the Lookup feature requires coverage. Any advice I can give them?

Syncing the GAL seems to be a popular request. Does anyone know if RIM has plans to enable this in the future?

You could export your GAL to a contact list and put it in a public folder then add that public folder to the pim sync in the desktop manager. We've done that for over a year, works like a charm.

Only problem is after today I can't do that anymore. Since upgrading to 4.0 and going completely OTA syncing we can't sync with public folders anymore. Now I need to find another solution.

Steve

I hate cluttering up the user's personal Contacts with my GAL, but that's the only way to work around Lookup. Maybe RIM will notice that syncing the GAL is a popular request and at least give us the option to do that.

What if we put the GAL export into a subfolder under in contacts folder.
Contacts
-> GAL

Would OTA sync pick that up?

Don't think so, at least not in GW

"gw" = ??

groupwise...


(sorry for the edit, hit the wrong button!) :oops:

ah, ok.

I just tested creating a contact folder inside of the main contact folder and ota sync doesn't see it. I though I read in another post that this was possible - it syncs everything in and below the main contacts folder.

Does anyone knw for sure whether this is possible using BES 4.0 and Exchange 2003?

How do you access the "lookup" feature - I've never been able to see my GAB from my bberry device. I use the 7100t with BES 2.6 (a version that is 2 years old). Thanks.

Is it even supported in 2.6?

I just upgraded my BES to 4, and would like to move to a totally wireless environment - no desktop software for sync. Previously, with the BES 3.6, I had a public folder with the GAL contents, and I would synch each users personal contacts and the GAL from the public folder. What do I do now??? My GAL is only about 500 email addresses, so size is not a concern. And my 20+ users insist on being able to select names from a list - they don't like the "Lookup" feature. Having a copy of the GAL in everyone's contacts (as a subfolder) is an option (yes, this will work with BES 4 and ver 4 on the handheld), but it'll be a headache to update everyone's "personal" GAL everytime the GAL changes. Anyone know of any automated ways to extract the GAL and dump it into everyone's personal Outlook contacts as a subfolder??

this may be a little off topic to this thread, but... I have created a personal distribution list in my Outlook contacts, but it doesn't appear in my BB address book. Is this normal, i.e. a missing feature? OS 4.0 by the way. If it's not there, that's okay, but I have a user asking me; it's not working for him or me...
thanks

We had to pick a add book to sync in pim sync portion of the bes setup for each user. I took their personal add book. Can they still search the corporate book and pull a name if they have coverage? If so how do you do a lookup from the global address book?
That might get me a kudo...