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
    2017-07-18T02:23:10+00:00

    The problem you describe is an Android constraint. Same if using iOS. 

    The native mobile devices don't allow 3rd party application access to native features, so while Outlook mobile for Android works for email and calendar, contact features are restricted to the native contact manager. To get one-way push, you have to use ActiveSync (or whatever your phone calls the sync feature). 

    See **here**for a better explanation. 

    Syncing works, but we (I also use Android) are stuck with one-way push until 3rd party app providers implement a work-around for the mobile native constraints.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-06-12T13:46:04+00:00

    The OP failed to provide a url for this apparent MS Statement. Some of what is said with regard sync is not correct

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-06-12T13:13:05+00:00

    This is a scandal. MS expect people to use MS Outlook in place of the built in Android Email application when they can't even fix basic functionality like this.

    Idiots in development that's all I can say

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  4. 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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  5. 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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