A recent change implemented by Microsoft on March 20, 2025, which automatically evaluated and converted all domain contacts (destination items in mailboxes) from "SMTP" to the "EX" email display type. This change has caused slower synchronization speeds, particularly affecting the initial sync for new users and delays in updating contact information for existing users.

In order to resolve change we have updated you to the latest release and are notifying you of a process in progress to get you back syncing quickly.

At DidITBetter, we have traditionally set GAL contacts to the "SMTP" setting to ensure that email addresses appear correctly, and that employee contact pictures are automatically displayed on mobile devices—provided the pictures are already saved in the GAL.

This change occurred shortly after another Microsoft update in early March, where they deprecated a long-standing method of retrieving employee pictures from the GAL. Upon identifying this issue, we adjusted our sync solution to continue retrieving and tagging employee pictures to contacts. Additionally, we updated your installation of Add2Exchange Enterprise to accommodate this change, ensuring that employee pictures remain attached to the correct contacts.

While we have successfully ensured that GAL pictures are still being attached to contacts, the change to the "EX" format has affected users of MS Outlook Mobile. Specifically, contact pictures will not display on mobile devices using Outlook Mobile, although they should still be visible in the default mail apps on phones.

As you are enrolled in Premier Support and we have an established connection, we have made adjustments to your GAL cache contacts to use the "EX" display type, and are currently resyncing. This process may temporarily remove and re-sync your contacts, which could take a few minutes depending on the size of your organization. For smaller organizations, this usually takes around 2 minutes, while larger organizations with 1,500+ employees may require up to 7-10 minutes per user.

This one-time update should resolve the long sync delays and ensure timely and accurate contact information moving forward, although contact pictures may not yet appear on mobile devices.

When Microsoft provides a fix for mobile contact pictures, the update will be automatically applied to your system as part of their Exchange Online and Mobile Outlook updates. Should any additional action be required from our side to enable this functionality, we will update your system as needed, without requiring further mass updates.

The mass update process may be currently underway, and we will keep you informed of progress and notify you once the update is completed.

Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly at the contact information provided or your dedicated Support Engineer.