Hi,

In our organization, some users have encountered this problem with distribution groups, the members in the distribution group is empty. Usually, a quick way to fix this is by creating a new Outlook profile, but it is not a convenient way. The groups are created in MS Exchange.

What could be the reason this happens? Is it a synchronization issue? Is there any fix for this?

• Edited by Distribution list in Outlook 2013 is empty Wednesday, June 03, 2015 8:11 AM

Hi,

Do these users have the Cached Exchange mode enabled? Distribution groups are stored in the offline address book (OAB). When we open a distribution group in Outlook, it actually accesses the offline data in OAB. We may try recreating the OAB file for one of the users who have the issue to see the result. To do this, please follow the steps below:

1. Close Outlook.

2. Find the Offline Address Books folder from the following path:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

3. Rename the Offline Address Books folder by appending .old behind it.

4. Start Outlook, go to Send/Receive tab > Send/Receive Groups, click Download Address Book.

5. Clear the checkbox before "Download changes since last Send/Receive".

6. Click OK.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Steve Fan
TechNet Community Support

Thanks for your reply Steve.

Cached Exchange model is enabled by default for all the users. So your saying that, if the contacts are not loaded from a specific distribution list, does it mean that Outlook was not able to fetch it from the offline address book?

So the only solution is to create a new address book each time when this issue occurs? 

• Edited by Distribution list in Outlook 2013 is empty 19 hours 38 minutes ago