iPhone and Outlook 365 contacts not syncing

Anonymous
2019-11-15T17:24:05+00:00

Good morning all -

I have an iPhone and Outlook 365.  I use the iPhone native contacts / calendar / email apps.  I use Outlook on my laptop.  I use a live.com account for my calendar and contacts.  I do not use the Outlook app on my phone.

When I make a calendar item it immediately syncs with my phone, regardless of whether I made the appointment on the phone or on the laptop in Outlook.

HOWEVER the same is not true with Contacts. 

  1. Contacts I make or edit in Outlook on my laptop sync right away in the phone.
  2. Existing contacts that are edited on the phone sync right away in Outlook.
  3. New contacts made in the phone do not sync.
  4. If I edit the new iPhone contact it still won't sync.

What is going on and how can I fix this?  This is happening on two phones in my family.

Thanks for any help,

Chris

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-06-03T17:12:18+00:00

    I have the new iPhone 11.  Do you have older phones and an older IOS?  Somehow it is working.  Also do you have the latest Outlook updates?  It must be some software update that made this work for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-06-12T13:58:14+00:00

    CBroda,

    May have found a resolution to your issue.

    If you set the default group on your iPhone to your Outlook account, in Settings>Contacts>Default Group...

    Then all new contacts will show up seamlessly. If you want to move old contacts, then you will need a contact mover application. They can be found on the app store, and it was worth the few dollars it cost.

    Figured this will help you, or anyone else trying to fix this issue.

    This resolved my issue.  However, the location is a little different on the iPhone 6s.  I also had to choose my company's mail server account name rather than just Outlook.  As in iPhone, Settings>Contacts>Default Account> 

    I then had three choices - Outlook (default), iCloud, and "my company's account name". 

    The existing choice of "Outlook" was not correctly populating my Windows 10 PC company Outlook contacts, so I then chose my company's account name from the list on the iphone Settings>Contacts>Default Account> and after about 1min, my iPhone contacts were now populating in my Windows PC Outlook contacts.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-06-18T20:05:54+00:00

    hilariously i just stumbled on this thread.  i've had this issue for ages and sadly it hasn't miraculously fixed itself.  ive got the iPhone x max so relatively new.  i've just given up, but appreciate the attempts by everyone here.  beyond frustrating.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-06-29T23:09:29+00:00

    If you add a contact on your iPhone and then tap on Groups back at the search screen it brings up all of your contact accounts.  Swipe down on that screen and it will resync with iCloud and place your new contact in Outlook on your PC.  Clearly this is a bug, probably on the iPhone as you should not have to swipe down to resync Contacts to iCloud.  As with Calendar where clearly it works, this resync should happen automatically.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-07-07T07:58:20+00:00

    Okay folks, I’ve suspected that the “upgrade” to Outlook for iOS (that Microsoft feels compelled to advertise as a default signature) caused me to lose every contact added to the iPhone native contact app since the “upgrade”, but now I’m almost certain.

    I’ve troubleshot and recorded the results for every potential option here:

    1. Added contact to Outlook on PC. Sync result: synced to Outlook on SurfacePro, synced to Outlook.live (Outlook Cloud), synced to iPhone (native contact app) and synced to Outlook for iOS.

    2. Added contact to Outlook SurfacePro. Sync result: synced to Outlook PC, synced to Outlook.live, synced to iPhone and synced to Outlook iOS.

    1. Added contact to Outlook.live. Sync result: synced to Outlook PC, synced to Outlook SurfacePro, synced to iPhone and synced to Outlook iOS.

    Outlook 365 —> Outlook Cloud —> iCloud —> iPhone: all good.

    Outlook Cloud —> Outlook 365: good

    Outkook Cloud —> iCloud —> iPhone: good.

    1. Added contact to iPhone. Sync result: Sync failure at Outlook PC, sync failure at Outlook SurfacePro, sync failure in Outlook.live and sync failure at Outlook iOS.
    2. Added contact to Outlook iOS. Sync result: Sync failure at PC, sync failure at SurfacePro, sync failure in Outlook.live and sync failure at iPhone native contact app.

    iCloud <—> iOS: failure

    Conclusion: iCloud syncs to iPhone, but iPhone won’t sync to iCloud via Outlook for iOS, therefore, Outlook for iOS is not compatible with iCloud.

    Possible Solution...

    If I can find the old Outlook app I will remove “Outlook (not) for iOS” and hope that Apple didn’t discontinue the abilty to two-way sync iPhone with the old Outlook. Or, if they did, maybe “iCloud for Microsoft” will two-way sync the way iTunes did.

    I’ll update 07-07-20 in the PM.

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