I have a slightly complex scenario. We have an old SharePoint 2007 server that we used for a corporate directory that wasn't set up by me. The person who did is gone. Synchronization was setup such that one could upload a photo in their
profile there, and that photo began propagating to all presence enabled applications like Outlook and Lync.
It's my understanding from some reading that those photo's were synced with AD, and that's where Lync and Outlook pull them from.
1. is that correct?
I did pull up the attribute editor in active directory users and computers, and I do see data in the thumbnailphoto section for my profile, which has a working picture when I open Outlook or Lync.
Next, we have a new SP 2013 server we built for a new project for Business Intelligence Reporting. I successfully setup the UPS and synced. In my profile there I see all of my AD data except the photo.
On the new SP 2013 server, I followed instructions on how to go in to Manage User Properties, picture attribute, and add the property mapping for my domain, thumbnailphoto, direction = import.
I then ran a full sync of the UPS, but I still don't see my photo.
2. Is direction "import" the correct direction to try to get my existing photo from AD?
3. If I want to start using this new SP 2013 environment to be authoritative for these photo's, can I add both an import and an export mapping for this property in the same configuration?
4. If I can add both import and export, what happens if there is a conflict with a photo uploaded into the sp 2013 environment vs photo's that may still be exporting from the SP 2007 environment?
I'm going to assume they would start overwriting one another in AD unless I disable that configuration in sp 2007, when the various sync jobs execute.
5. Does anyone know where this photo is actually stored in AD? I find it hard to believe it would actually be inside the AD database but I don't know everything.
Any help is greatly appreciated..