Exchange ActiveSync won't sync contacts on Android

I've had similar problems recently and found the following worked for me.  In my particular case I have used a personal, non-microsoft email address as the ID for my Microsoft Office 365 account for some time.  Up until fairly recently I could add this as an Exchange ActiveSync account in both Outlook 2016 on my PCs/Laptops and on my HTC Android phone and get syncing of Contacts and Calendar between devices.  I had to find out the ActiveSync Server name to do the configuration but it did work.  (The only problems I encountered were Categories not syncing between WIndows devices and unable to create Contact Groups but these are known limitations of ActiveSync accounts).

A few weeks ago something changed that stopped this working.  Not sure what it was but found that I could no longer configure the account in either Outlook 2016 or on my Android.  After much trial and error I found the following resolved the problem.  In my Office 365 account I created an alias using a newly created outlook.com address.  I then made this the primary address for the account.  I then used this address to configure an account in both Outlook 2016 and as an Outlook.com account on my HTC and all started working again.  Also configured the account successfully on a friend's Samsung Galaxy S6. The new outlook.com address is still an ActiveSync account by I'm hoping (and have been assured by Microsoft Outlook.com support via a chat session) that this will be migrated to a Microsoft Exchange account in the coming months thus removing the limitations mentioned above.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I am new to Android (had Windows Mobile and Windows Phone for years--from version 4 to 10---zero sync issues with Exchange or Outlook up to Outlook 16 (Office 365)).

Tried that business card scan thing to add a couple new contacts on a Samsung Galaxy Edge 7 with Android Marshmallow. Would not sync with PC. I have Exchange Server (hosted by MS) and Windows 10 with Office 365. This was NOT an "Outlook.com" issue (I use that, too, but Exchange is for business and that's where I add contacts for business).

All I did was remove the Samsung scan card app, re-do the 2 contacts in question and all seems to sync OK again. Although MS seems to force manual contact sync (email and calendar are fine automatically). The Outlook app for Android does not allow contact editing (or adding) for some reason, so you have to use the Android app which works but not as well as it should. I did not have to remove Skype sync in my case. I also did not have to remove and re-add the account on the phone---just dump the scan card app and re-enter manually those two contacts. Time will tell if this solution persists.

Can you please share what adjustments are made to Exchange accounts to help with this contact syncing issue? It will help us other IT Engineers who are having issues with Exchange / Android Contact Synching. 

Thank you in Advance,

Hi,

I never got it to work.   Android contacts and the phone book both don't show all my contacts.  When I start to type certain names they just wont come up.   I downloaded an app called Simpler.  With that app, I have access to all my contacts.  I'm not sure what it does differently, but it works great.  The only issue is that I have to use that app.  If I forget and just use the standard dialer, it will not read all the names so then I have to go into Simpler.  I'll happily hop on a webex session and show you the problem. 

Mike

I had real problems trying to do this but in the end have managed to get Contacts/Calendar syncing between Outlook 2016, an Android (HTC 10) phone and an iPad.  From memory, this is how I achieved it.

I originally had a Microsoft account that I created when I purchased an Office 365 subscription.  When I created the account I used my business email address (xxx @ xxx.co.uk) as the ID - bad mistake!  I ran into the same problems of trying to get contacts and calendar to sync.

Firstly, I created a new Microsoft account using a new outlook.com email address (xxxx @ outlook.com) and then managed to update my old Microsoft account to use this address.   (You probably only need to worry about this latter stage if you have an Office 365 subscription.  The important thing is to have a Microsoft account of the form xxxx @ outlook.com).   

I then added this account to Outlook 2016.  This was straightforward as Outlook auto-discovered the account and applied the appropriate settings.  You will just be asked to reconfirm the account password.  (Previously, when I was using my business email address for my Microsoft account ID I ran into the problems of having to try and find the appropriate mail server settings etc.)  Once the account was added to Outlook, I copied my contacts and calendar items to the appropriate contact/calendar entry in My Contacts/My Calendars in Outlook 2016. I could then immediately see these entries on-line by logging into www.outlook.live.com with my Microsoft account details.  The only annoying thing I found was that Categories weren't synced so adding the account to another instance of Outlook 2016 created the contacts OK but lost their categorisation.  Also, if you don't use Outlook 2016 on a PC then you can import your contacts via the Import function available online under Outlook People.  

On my HTC 10 and iPad I then just created an Outlook account (not outlook.com or Exchange) and choose these accounts as my source for contacts and calendar apps and everything syncs!  I've also tried these steps successfully on a friend's Samsung Galaxy 6.

Hope this helps.