outlook.com contacts will only sync one way with android and outlook app

Anonymous
2017-02-12T14:17:29+00:00

I have added my hotmail.com account as exchange in outlook app on android (nexus 6).

Contacts sync one way only.

Problem:

  1. Any new contact added via the android native contacts app to the "hotmail.com" account is deleted without warning on next sync.
  2. Edits made to hotmail.com contacts in native android contacts app are overwritten and lost on next sync.

I have had this problem for more than 1 year. I have now spent about 50 man hours trying to find a solution.  Because the phone is unusable without the ability to add or edit contacts, I have been using my partners old iphone 5c, which syncs contacts both ways flawlessly but means I cant use my smart watch.

My hotmail account was "upgraded" to exchange some months back, but the result before and after is the same (after removing and re-adding of course)

I have spent probably 5 hours with MS support teams.  

  1. First I tried the outlook android app  "in-app" support. They got me to reinstall outlook and my account, and checked various things were ok, then said there was nothing wrong with my setup, and it must be an issue with the account itself. They sent me to the MS account support eam.
  2. The MS account support team said my account was fine, and it was nothing to do with them, and sent me to the desktop outlook support team.
  3. The desktop account team sent me back to the account support team.
  4. The account support team told me to go back to the android outlook in-app support team. they told me to get an apple phone instead.

So it looks like the 100 or so people who have the same problem have no support, and no solution, other than to switch to iPhone.

Outlook | Outlook for mobile | Outlook for Android | For business

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-08-13T10:06:51+00:00

    Are you not using the Outlook or OWA app from the play store? - these both work fine on my Samsung phones

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-08-13T09:32:00+00:00

    This worked for me on my Samsung Galaxy S8.

    Hi, did you try the two tests?  I.e.

    1. create a new contact directly on the phone using the phones people app or equivalent, then do a sync, and see if the contact was then deleted?
    2. Edit an existing contact on the phone via the phonse built in people app, do a sync, then see it was overwritten with the old version from the PC?

    It could be that it works for samsung phones, which have quite a lot of samsung customisations and apps on them, and not on a google nexus (which is more pure android)

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-08-12T13:38:54+00:00

    This worked for me on my Samsung Galaxy S8.

    Installed the recently updated Outlook app and added my Outlook.com account.  (Note: I have a custom domain hosted on Outlook.com.  Pretty sure you can't do that anymore, but if you are one of the legacy users like me, this will work.)

    After I added my account, I went into the Outlook app and under settings, and tapped the account (named for my email address) in the Accounts section.  There I enabled "Sync Contacts".  Microsoft was thoughtful enough to display a note saying the sync may take up to an hour to complete but mine synced immediately.

    From there, I went to the native Android contacts app to confirm that the Outlook account was now listed for sync.  Tap Settings and then Contacts to Display.  You should see the Outlook account listed there.

    Guidance is here for both Android and iOS...

    https://blogs.office.com/en-us/2017/06/05/improving-people-in-outlook-for-ios-and-android/?wt.mc_id=AID600843_QSG_SCL_143295

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  4. Brian Tillman [Outlook MVP 2007-2019] 25,925 Reputation points
    2017-07-18T16:16:01+00:00

    > Let us not forget there are a lot of people who say 2 way contact sync between MS

    > account (exchange) and Android actually works.

    I'm one of those people. I used the "Corporate" account type on my Android device (6.0.1) and the standard Email, Contacts, and Calendar apps work just fine in both directions. I can update in a web browser, on the phone, or with Outlook 2016 on a desktop and the changes sync across all. I do not use the Outlook for Android app.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-07-18T15:58:48+00:00

    Solution / workaround for using Outlook contacts on Android:

    Now whenever you want to add or edit a contact use this new shortcut. New contacts can be added using the bug plus (+) in the upper right corner.

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