How to get pictures from OWA to sync in Skype for Business

Hi DACVPC,

Based on your description, the Edit or Remove Picture button greyed out in your Skype for Business Options. In fact, if you click this button, it will be navigated to OWA with the following link.

https://outlook.office.com/owa/?path=/options/myaccount/action/photo

And if you want to update picture from OWA, Exchange Server needs to be integrated with Skype for Business Server. You can refer to the following link to see more details.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/deploy/integrate-with-exchange-server/integrate-with-exchange-server

Meanwhile, I'd like to confirm if the picture shows up in OWA. If so, please wait 12~24 hours for all changed to take effect. Besides, you can try to update it by running Windows PowerShell commands. For your reference, https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/skypeforbusiness/deploy/integrate-with-exchange-server/high-resolution-photos.

And for the further analysis, I'd love to collect more details on this issue.

1. Does the issue happen to all users in Remote Desktop Service farm?

2. Could the users see the pictures in their Outlook desktop client?

3. What's the environment, Skype for Business online or on-premises, Exchange online, on-premises or hybrid?

4. Regarding "I've tried working through steps from the following website", did you try all the suggestions in that thread?

Regards,

Marvin

Thanks for the reply. As mentioned, OWA is connecting to O365. There is no OnPrem Exchange or Skype server and both are "online." I can see the users pics in OWA when I log in as that user with their credentials. All users in the RDS farm cannot see their picture in Skype. Users do not have an Outlook Desktop Client as this is not installed, therefore not available. They only use OWA. From the linked website I sent, "Office 365 picture is stored in the Exchange Online mailbox. If the picture is uploaded in Exchange Online, it will be automatically synced to Skype for Business client."

The article also states:

"2. Please check if you can see picture in Exchange Online OWA: https://outlook.office.com/owa -> top right corner?

If yes, we can know the picture is not synced from Exchange Online to Skype for Business. If no picture here, the picture has not been uploaded to your Office 365 account."

The pic is there, so apparently it's not "synced" to S4B.

I've verified sip and SMTP match.

I re-tried setting the picture via the command:

set-userphoto  "user.name"  -picturedata  ([system.io.file]::readallbytes("c:\users\administrator\desktop\helmet.png"))

This is the response I get back now:

There are multiple numbers prior to these lines similar to those found in the first line below:

1','56','84','27','123','15','242','40','162','185','229','38','247','17','191','69','20','86','32','127','255','217'
-Identity:'user.name' -Confirm:$False' to server DM3PR18MB0826.namprd18.prod.outlook.com: Server version
15.20.1122.0000, Proxy method RPS:
The WinRM client cannot process the request. The connection string should be of the form
[<transport>://]<host>[:<port>][/<suffix>] where transport is one of "http" or "https". Transport, port and suffix are
optional. The host may be a hostname or an IP address. For IPv6 addresses, enclose the address in brackets - e.g.
"http://[1::2]:80/wsman". Change the connection string and try the request again.
[Server=BL0PR18MB2113,RequestId=c66b5265-c7d8-46dc-a24a-8a63ce8ccb3e,TimeStamp=9/11/2018 8:26:59 PM] .
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-UserPhoto], CmdletProxyException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Exchange.Configuration.CmdletProxyException,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.Reci
   pientTasks.SetUserPhoto
    + PSComputerName        : outlook.office365.com

Hi DACVPC,

 

It seems that the PowerShell commands didn't work successfully. Please try updating your photo with PowerShell commands and make sure your commands are typed correctly as following:

 

# Connect to 365 with the lines below

$ExSession = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/?proxymethod=rps -Credential $MSOLCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Import-PSSession $ExSession

 

# If you need to remove a photo, use the command

Remove-UserPhoto -Identity *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

 

# Define your users email address and the filename.

$user = "*** Email address is removed for privacy ***"

$userphoto = "C:\Temp\user.jpg"

 

# Upload the photo

Set-UserPhoto -Identity $user -PictureData ([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($userphoto)) -Confirm:$false

 

In addition please check if your account is added in Exchange type instead of IMAP/POP. You need use Exchange account to get your photo integrated to Skype for Business.

 

If you have any update please share with us.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

I tried the steps provided and received the same error.

A quick lookup on the error led to this site:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38359252/office-365-powershell-issue-with-set-userphoto-for-anyone-other-than-myself

I tried the suggestion there and also received the same error.

Here's the latest update:

I connected to O365 via PowerShell with the following commands:

1. $UserCredential = Get-Credential
2. $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $UserCredential -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
   

      3. Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

1. Import-PSSession $Session -DisableNameChecking

Note the difference in the $Session connection.

I then ran the commands provided by Kevin above:

               $user = "*** Email address is removed for privacy ***"
               $userphoto = "C:\Temp\picture.jpg"
               Set-UserPhoto -Identity $user -PictureData ([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($userphoto)) -Confirm:$false

This worked and did not throw an error. However, when I checked to see if the picture showed up, I opened OWA and saw no picture. If I clicked on the picture icon, I could see the picture there but not set it or get it to appear properly. I'm not sure if I have to wait a period of time for this to work properly.

Additional info I've just learned:

Prior to moving to an RDS farm, users were using Citrix. These users are impacted.

Any new users are not impacted and can freely edit their own picture using Skype Options.

Hi DACVPC,

Greetings. This is Alan Wu from Office 365 forum support and I am here to follow up on this thread. 

After going through the whole post and I know that you have edited the picture via the PowerShell. Given the situation, it is recommended that you wait for 24-48 hours to check the result. 

If the issue persists after several days, I'd like to collect the following information for further investigation.

1. Since you said that the affected users are in the RDS farm, can their Skype for Business picture be shown in the unaffected user's machine? I mean, you can try configuring one of the affected user's Skype for Business account on the workable user's client to see if it makes a difference. 

2. If the issue goes to a point that the updated picture shows in OWA but not in Skype for Business, my suggestion is to check the EWS (Exchange Web Service) status. To do so, you can hold "Ctrl" and click the Skype for Business icon on the task center and choose "Confuguration information". After that, you can provide the complete information in the Private Message (PM) so that we can analyze it. 

3. Are there the affected users have anything other (besides they are in RDS farm) in common, for example, they are under the same domain "contoso.com"? 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Regards,

Alan

Hi DACVPC,

If you got the update, please let me know. I am always here for you. 

Regards,

Alan

We've waited the 24-48 hours and don't see a change. The picture does not show up when running Skype outside of the RDS Farm. I'll get the configuration information sent tomorrow. All users are in the same domain, both those that have it working (new users) as well as those that don't (old Citrix users.) 

I'm not sure what happened but I couldn't get back to this page with my previous login so I created a new one. Please re-send the PM link.

Thank you!