Skype for Business Displays incorrect Names for Contacts

Skype for Business is the leading communication and collaboration platform available for businesses today. From audio and video meetings to the ability to work together on projects, Skype4B provides the average office worker with all the tools they could possibly need to effectively communicate and work with their coworkers. However, that is not to say that Skype for Business is perfect, because it isn’t. One specific issue that is reported by Skype for Business users quite often is the program displaying blatantly incorrect names for contacts in the Address Book.

What causes Skype for Business to display incorrect contact names?

How to fix Skype for Business displaying incorrect names for contacts

While Skype for Business users may experience a wide variety of different problems, for those affected by this issue, displayed names for contacts are so overtly incorrect that the chances of the user being able to recognize them are slim to none. This might not be the end of the world for a Skype4B user with half a dozen or a dozen contacts in their Address Book, but when your workplace has 750 people on its Skype4B Address Book, some or all of the contact names being laughably incorrect is, simply put, a nightmare.

As grave a problem as it may seem, however, there is no need to resort to extreme measures such as uninstalling Skype for Business and then reinstalling it to try and sort this issue out. This issue can be fixed, and the right names for all of your contacts restored, by simply removing proxy addresses from your Skype for Business Address Book. In order to do so, you need to:

1. On your workplace’s Front End server (the one that deals with the Skype4B Address Book service), go here and click on Download to download the installer for Microsoft’s Skype for Business Server 2015 Resource Kit. You are going to need the resource kit and the tools it contains installed on your computer if you are going to remove proxy addresses from the Skype4B Address Book.

   

2. Once the download has completed, go to where the installer was downloaded to, launch it and follow the onscreen instructions to install the Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Resource Kit and the tools it contains on your computer.
3. When the Microsoft Skype for Business Server 2015 Resource Kit has been installed, navigate to its installation directory (%Program Files%\Skype for Business Server 2015\ResKit by default), locate a program named ABSConfig.exe, and double-click on it to run it.
4. In ABSConfig, scroll down to the entry titled proxyAddresses in the AD Attribute Name column usually found at the very bottom of the list and drop it there.

   

5. Open the dropdown menu under the Type of Attribute section and click on the ProxyAddresses – Tel Only option to select it.

   

6. Click on Apply Changes at the very bottom of the ABSConfig screen.

   

7. Once you’re done making the required changes to Skype for Business’ Address Book configuration, launch a fresh instance of the Skype for Business Server Management Shell.
8. Type Update-CSuserDatabase -verbose into the shell and press Enter. This command, once processed, will refresh the Skype for Business user database and manually re-sync it with the server.
9. Once the command from the previous step has been successfully executed, type update-CSAddressbook -verbose into the Skype for Business Server Management Shell and press Enter. This command will regenerate the Address Book.

When the command has been processed, close the Skype for Business Server Management Shell, go back to your workplace computer and fire up Skype for Business – all of your contacts should now have the right names – finally putting this crisis to bed.