I'm seeing several users starting to show up in the GAL even though they are not email enabled. Need some help to remove them.

It sounds like the users are Mail Enabled and not Mailbox Enabled. You can remove the email address by right-clicking on the account in AD Users and Computers and then clicking on Exchange Tasks. Once you do this, you will have the option for Remove Email Address. This should then take them out of the GAL.

That option is not available as we use Exchange 2010 and the user does not appear in the EMC. The user does not appear to have any email address associated with the account.

If you provide details regarding your environment..Like Exchange Version and Service Pack, Windows OS and Service pack for Exchange and Domain Controllers. It sounds like the users are Mail Enabled and not Mailbox Enabled. You can remove the email address by right-clicking on the account in AD Users and Computers and then clicking on Exchange Tasks. Once you do this, you will have the option for Remove Email Address. This should then take them out of the GAL.

Are those mail enabled contacts..? You can see those on left side of EMC under Recipients.

Our AD Domain is Windows Server 2003 SP2, Exchange 2007 SP2 and Exchange 2010 SP1. These users are standard users not contact etc. They don't show up on the left side of EMC under recipients.

When did the problem started ? Did you do anything like installed service pack or migrated users to 2010. How many users are affected ? Compare the Ldp dump of users having this problem and users not having this problem...since this will give us the clear view of the exchange attributes on the affected user..

Do an ldf dump as ploka suggested and see if alias or targetaddress is configured. Possibly some third party tools or scripts are stamping some Exchange attributes.James Chong MCITP | EA | EMA; MCSE | M+, S+ Security+, Project+, ITIL msexchangetips.blogspot.com

Any Update ??

I am having this exact same issue also. Its happening on my 2007/2010 forest. the strange this is if i set my outlook mode to cached and do a download of the address book, these users do not show up.

i noticed that the showinaddressbook attribute of these users is populated with the gal information. ive read online that this attribute should be empty unless its a mail enabled user. yet many of my non mail-enabled users have this attribute set, and i cant tell why. i have a ticket open with MS lets see if they can help me out.

if i remove that attribute from the user, the account is not longer shown in the GAL. whats strange is some of these users have 2 items under taht attribute for 2 different GALs (the default gal and the user gal). still waiting for microsofts answer. i have 2 email address policy, the default adderss policy which is for the internal domain name, and the external email address policy. not sure if this matters

Hi CRDNIBD, Any update on your issue? If you look at the objects in adsiedit.msc do they have Exchange attributes? Best regards, SerenaPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Hi Roy, Please write a new post for your issue in our forum, if you do so, you will get more assist. Thanks for understanding. Best regards, SerenaPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

I had this same issue today with two new users I had made earlier in the week. I found that this attribute problem occured after I made the two new users by copying another AD user account which did have an Exchange mailbox. It would seem the showinaddressbook attribute copies across and therefore the new users appear in the address book regardless of whether they are attached to a mailbox or not.