Visio 2016 - Org charts that pull from Exchange Online (365)

Question

_{Tuesday, April 30, 2019 10:12 PM}

When you use a basic template for org charts with Visio (desktop client) that connects to exchange online (Office 365/Azure AD) to gather all the required information and have Outlook setup in cache mode it, Visio will not create the subordinates automatically (cannot force a sync either).

However if you change your Outlook profile to online mode and recreate the org chart it will generate all the subordinates... 

I've contacted Office 365 support about this issue, and received the following:

Office 365 includes technical support. However, Office 365 subscription support only covers installation and activation issues for Office 365 ProPlus. Troubleshooting of Office application use isn't included in the Office 365 subscription, you will need to raise a paid technical support request.

I've been able to work around the issue by creating a secondary profile in online mode (cache mode has to be used for the client), changing it to prompt profiles when opening Outlook and this has worked as temporary workaround but being straight to the point is unacceptable as a solution. 

If I create a new profile in cache mode without opening outlook at all, then generate the org chart it will create the subordinates, but as soon as you open outlook it ceases working. This leads me to believe that the OST file does not capture any of the GAL and granular information of other mailboxes. 

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? Is this a bug or intended? 

Thanks

All replies (3)

_{Tuesday, April 30, 2019 10:14 PM}

The client creates org charts due monthly due to the way their business operates, so its not something I can just do a one off work around and move on with life.

I could export all the information to CSV from Powershell however that is not convenient for a end user and requires quite a bit of data manipulation to get into a format that will allow to be imported into the org chart. 

_{Wednesday, May 1, 2019 8:42 AM}

Hi,

Generally, if we create an organization chart from the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory in Visio, it will read the Exchange data from your Exchange account configured in Outlook. With Cached mode, the OAB (Offline Address Book) file would be used for Exchange Active Directory information.

You create a new Outlook profile in Control Panel > Mail > Show Profiles > Add. Only configure with your Exchange account. Then set to prompt for a profile when start Outlook. Once you create the new profile (see above) you need to go and turn off Cached Mode. In Outlook 2016, go to File, Account Settings, Select the account and click Change, On the Server Settings page remove the check next to "Use Cached Exchange Mode". Exit and restart Outlook. Open this new profile in Outlook, then create an organisation chart from the Microsoft Exchange Active Directory in Visio 2016 to have a try.

You can also try rename the load Offline Address Books folder, restart your Outlook to rebuild it. Check if it works.

Best Regards,

Herb

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_{Wednesday, May 8, 2019 10:19 PM}

I've tried renaming the offline address book folder and restarting Outlook to rebuild it but it still fails to create subordinates in Visio.

I have tried this from multiple computer, multiple client networks and different versions of Office suite (32 bit, 64 bit, proplus, business etc.) and it resulted in the same behavior each time.

If you create a new mail profile account in cache or online mode without opening Outlook, Visio will create the subordinates without issues.

This surely is a bug with Visio being unable to retrieve subordinates from the Offline Address Book with Office 365.

I do not have any clients with on-premises exchange 2013/2016 to test out this functionality but I dare say it might also be impacted.