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
    2017-02-12T17:28:03+00:00

    On an android device you install the Outlook app from the play store, when you start the app you then add the hotmail a/c which requires the a/c username & password only

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-12T23:26:50+00:00

    On an android device you install the Outlook app from the play store, when you start the app you then add the hotmail a/c which requires the a/c username & password only

    This is exactly what I have done, probably 20 times in the last year. Always same result - one way sync only.  To be clear:

    1. take a brand new nexus 6
    2. installed outlook app from play store (did this last time 5 days ago)
    3. Add your hotmail account as an exchange accout.
    4. Go to conacts tab in outlook, it them asks you if it can access phones contacts, you say yes.
    5. Wait
    6. Go to phones native contact app, see 0 contacts.
    7. go to android settings->accounts->hotmail->sync now
    8. Wait
    9. Now all 1000 of the contacts are in both outlook app and the native contacts app.

    So far so good, but now:

    1. In the android contacts app, add a new contact in the hotmail account.
    2. Wait some time.
    3. Check outlook.com web people view - no new contact.
    4. go to android settings->accounts->hotmail->sync now
    5. See contact has been deleted by the sync, and now exists neither on phone nor in hotmail.
    6. Edit a hotmail contact on phones contacts app.
    7. Do a sync.
    8. See that your change has been overwritten.

    I have had MS support look at my phone, they say its setup perfectly, so it must be a problem with my outlook.com account. I spent hours with the outlook.com account team, they say nothing is wrong.

    Note, the account syncs all contacts two ways flawlessly on my old iphone, but I want to use android as it is the only platform which has the apps I need.

    there are people with the same issue, but no solution.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-18T07:33:31+00:00

    I could not have explained it better myself. Have the exact same issue but with different phone (Galaxy S7 Edge). 

    Would like like see a solution ot explanation from Microsoft about this issue/feature.

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    6 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2017-02-22T17:41:21+00:00

    Hi,

    I too have the same problem with a Sony Experia X Compact and the Outlook application.

    New contacts added using the Android Contacts application don't sync to Outlook.com even though the application is configured to save the new contacts to the Outlook.com account.

    Why doesn't the contacts section in the Outlook application not provide an option to add or edit contacts?

    I have just moved from an iPhone where two-way contact sync worked fine.

    I've recently decided to use the Outlook.com account as my main email, calendar and contact cloud source but after having numerous issues with the Outlook 2016 PC app and now the Android Outlook app I'm beginning to wonder if I've made the right choice.

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    8 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2017-03-10T14:07:10+00:00

    Yes, This has been frustrating to say the least. Not sure how any company can release an app that doesn't do basic two-way sync. I am surprised that Microsoft hasn't even cared to acknowledge the problem. 

    Our company implemented Office 360 recently and contacts sync with Android has been a huge issue. We are contemplating to move back to Google Apps.

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