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(In reply to comment #0)
> Contacts address book is editable - I can add/edit/delete contacts but is
> not searchable and therefor autocompletion doesn't work either in composer
> window.

Hmm, this is not correct.

> Global Adress List is searchable (autocompletion works) but is not editable.

This is correct.

> Evolution error:
> Unable to perform search.
> This query did not complete successfully.

Sounds known, let me look in upstream bugzilla.

Based on [1], the search in book/gal is fully supported only if the respective book is marked for offline usage (in book properties). It's still true in the 0.28.3 version in RHEL6.

I'm not sure what to do now, if I internally begin to use cache for storing the contacts (effectively ignore the "mark for offline" option and always behave like it's set to 'true'), then it'll not be good for everyone. The version of evolution-mapi in RHEL7, 3.6.x, is better on this, but it's a long way between the two versions.

I'd say either preset "mark for offline" on account creation by default, or make a note about known "bug".

By the way, marking the addressbook as offline also decreases response time, once the book is downloaded locally, because it'll not do any network I/O during the search. Please note that the option change requires restart of evolution-data-server-2.28 process, to let the backend know about the change.

[1] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=575940#c3

Created attachment 744783 [details]
evolution-mapi-0.28.3-books-for-offline.patch

for evolution-mapi;

Let's set newly recognized address books for offline synchronization.
I realized that GAL has it set too, thus it's not much of a change.
The first search can "fail", due to waiting for initial synchronization,
but once the book is downloaded it all works.

Note it only works for newly recognized books, or when a user disables his/her MAPI account and enables it again (preferably with closed evolution before enable).

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2013-1540.html