XADM: Custom Recipient SMTP Address May Not Change Properly

If you change the global Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) site address in the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program, the SMTP address of some custom recipients may not change to match the new site address.

To work around this problem, change the SMTP site address manually for each custom recipient. You can also perform a batch change of all custom recipients with the Import and Export utilities of the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program. To do so, follow these steps:

Select an Export File

1. On the Tools menu, click Directory Export.
2. Select or create an export file.
   
   NOTE: To maintain all possible attributes of the custom recipients, Microsoft recommends that you use the Custom.csv file located on the Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0 CD in the Support\Samples\Csvs\Custom folder.
3. Select the recipient container to export.
4. Under Export Objects, click Custom Recipient.
5. Click to select the Include Hidden Objects check box if there are any hidden custom recipients.
6. Click Export to complete the export process.
7. Delete the custom recipient objects from the container you exported.

Modify the Export File

1. Open the export file in Microsoft Excel or in a text editor such as Notepad.
2. Remove the E-mail Addresses field (column AK if using Custom.csv).
3. If necessary, add values for the First Name and Last Name fields.
4. Save the file with a different name, such as Custom1.csv. This preserves the original file in case it is needed again.

Import the New File

1. Before you import the new file, change the SMTP site address to the format that you want to use. To do so, click the Site Addressing tab of the Site Addressing object, and edit the existing SMTP site address.
2. On the Tools menu, click Directory Import.
3. Select the recipient container and import file to use for the import.
4. Click Import to complete the import process.

All of the custom recipients should now have an SMTP address in the correct format.

For additional information on using the Import or Export commands, see the following Knowledge Base article:

You may be unable to change the SMTP site address for certain custom recipients under the following conditions:

1. The custom recipient was originally created or imported without a first name, last name, or both.
2. The global SMTP Site Address was subsequently changed to the following syntax after the custom recipient was created or imported:
   %s.%g@domain.com

The %s option specifies that the surname (last name) is substituted and the %g option specifies that the given name (first name) is substituted. For example, a mailbox for Karan Khanna will have the following SMTP e-mail address: