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
    2017-04-04T16:00:46+00:00

    NU,

    I checked with my peers on the mobile Outlook and they confirmed this is a known issue and is documented here, https://acompli.helpshift.com/a/outlook/?s=people&f=how-do-i-sync-my-outlook-contacts-to-my-address-book.  They have scheduled work that will address this issue but I don't have a good date yet to share.  I would keep watch on that link above and on the Uservoice as well.  Normally we update these with status once we know for sure a good date to share.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-04-04T19:27:49+00:00

    On a related issue, is there also a plan to address the inability to add and/or edit recurring calendar entries? It's another weakness of this app, which seems pretty basic.

    Thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-04-04T20:10:26+00:00

    NU,

    I checked with my peers on the mobile Outlook and they confirmed this is a known issue and is documented here, https://acompli.helpshift.com/a/outlook/?s=people&f=how-do-i-sync-my-outlook-contacts-to-my-address-book.  They have scheduled work that will address this issue but I don't have a good date yet to share.  I would keep watch on that link above and on the Uservoice as well.  Normally we update these with status once we know for sure a good date to share.

    This article is no longer correct - it was true of the outlook app a long time ago. Many people can sync contacts both ways by setting up an exchange account in the android phone, which is also done automatically now by installing and setting up the outlook android app.  However, there are a number of people this does not work for, and who, like myself, have exhausted many days of the MS support team trying to find a solution.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-04-26T15:21:12+00:00

    Hi,

    Thanks to Santiago73 the issue is now resolved.

    On configuring Outlook I'm prompted to provide my email address\password which appears to create an Outlook account in Android. Email\Calendar sync works fine with this account but contacts created in the Android Contacts app are not created in Outlook.com.

    If I add an Exchange ActiveSync account in the Android accounts area and amend the Android Contacts app to automatically save new contacts using the Exchange ActiveSync account the contacts appear in Outlook.com as expected.

    So, it appears that the Android Contacts app must use an Exchange ActiveSync account to create new contacts in Outlook.com rather than an Outlook account.

    Many thanks,

    Sean

    I saw this somewhere else - it's an old fix that worked for me back when I was using Android 5.x but it hasn't ever worked under 6.x on my Galaxy S6 nor under 7.x on my new Galaxy S8. I just tried again, and the phone will only remember the change until the next sync (changes never appear on Outlook.com).

    Also, when "Adding" a Contact (even assuming it did work), if I specify the Exchange account as the destination, I have no access to many fields, like Address, etc. - only thing is that damn "Scan business card" option at the bottom. If I select a different account to create the contact, all of the fields appear.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-04-29T21:34:02+00:00

    Microsoft has chosen to make life hard for hotmail users on Android - supriise! :)

    They do admittedly warn that the Outlook app is broken/limited to just 100 contacts when you turn on Sync contacts inside the app.

    Here's Microsoft's statement.

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