Outlook App for Android does not sync contacts

Anonymous
2019-05-07T17:31:24+00:00

Android contacts app does not sync with my Outlook email account.  I tried 4 different ways.  Each time I ensured Contacts sync is enabled in both Outlook account settings (off by default) and Android Settings\Accounts (on by default).  My account syncs with Android email and Android calendar - only Android contacts is empty.

1.), in Android Settings\Accounts, added my email as an Exchange account.  It successfully syncs with Android mail and Android calendar.  Not contacts - remains empty. 

Removed this account and tried again

2.) Installed Outlook for Android, added my outlook.com address, enabled contacts sync.  Still nothing.

3.) Left account in Outlook and attempted to add it in Android Settings\Accounts -  message "The email address is already connected with Outlook.  Do you want to connect it again with another service?"  I proceeded and chose "Outlook.com" as the service.

4.) Uninstalled everything.  in Android Settings\Accounts, added my email as an Exchange account.  Installed Outlook for Android, added account to Outlook.  Now it shows up in Android Settings\Accounts twice - once as Exchange and once as Outlook.com.  

Within Android Settings\Accounts it indicates "Contacts - Last synced 5/7/19 10:28am".  If I disable and reenable sync, the spinning sync circle appears, as if it was syncing, and then displays a new "Last synced" message.  Yet, no contacts ever show up.

Never had an issue on iOS.  Works perfectly.  My girlfriend's Samsung phone, contact sync works perfectly.  My LG phone, no contact sync.

Clarification - this is not an Outlook for Android issue.  This is a Microsoft ActiveSync integration issue with Android.  It is NOT required to install Outlook on Android.  Contacts, calendar, and mail sync are UNRELATED to Outlook for Android.  If you enter Android Settings\Accounts, you can connect to your microsoft email account via Exchange ActiveSync without ever having installed Outlook.  This is an Exchange ActiveSync bug!

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

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-09-11T20:33:45+00:00

    I also have the same issue with my Microsoft Mail app on my Android phone.

    This is definitely a serious bug for software that is supposed to handle mail and contacts in a reliable manner.

    When I create a new contact on my phone, it is correctly synced to outlook.com, but if I create a new contact on outlook.com, it is not synced on my Android Mail app.

    This solves it for me:

    1. Open Mail on Android
    2. click on the hamburger menu top left
    3. click on settings icon bottom left
    4. click on your account name (...@outlook.com)
    5. disable sync contacts > confirm disable
    6. close the Mail app
    7. navigate to your Android settings > Apps > Outlook > Storage > and press Clear cache
    8. close settings
    9. open the Mail app
    10. repeat steps 1-4
    11. at the bottom, click RESET ACCOUNT

    Mail will restart

    1. Navigate back to Sync contacts, and enable sync contacts.

    Next the new contacts will be visible.

    But you will have to perform this every time a new contact was added on your desktop Outlook or outlook.com account.

    Hopefully somebody from Microsoft who cares about 'contacts' being reliable and dependable in all their software applications picks this up and has this irritating and severe bug squashed soon.

    edit:

    I added steps 6 and 7, since I believe they are also needed for this working every time.

    Please let me know if somebody finds a shorter way to accomplish this.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-07-16T02:32:53+00:00

    I recently bought an Android Samsung Note 9 and was having similar contact sync issues. All my Contacts are in my personal Hotmail/Outlook and it wasn't being sync'd. I have my business contacts in my business Outlook, which is Office 365. Then I have my personal contacts in my personal Outlook - which is a Hotmail account.

    After spending an hour I found the issue and why my personal contacts were not syncing to my Android phone Samsung note 9.

    1. Go to your Outlook app
    2. Select on the hamburger menu top left
    3. Select Settings wheel
    4. Select your personal email/outlook (((obviously if you don't see it, then you need to click on "Add Account" and add your personal/outlook email)))
    5. Enable sync contacts

    Voila - your contacts from outlook will start to download immediately

    If you want to set personal/outlook as the default, go to your people app, click on the hamburger menu, go to manage contacts and go to default storage location to make personal/outlook as your default contacts.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-07-14T22:59:40+00:00

    After three days of testing, I am back at square one...

    Scratch my last post.  It did not work.  I am in the same predicament.

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-06-12T13:24:17+00:00

    Something has gone wrong recently for sure, I am using Samsung S9 with the latest updates, as well as latest Outlook app. 

    It syncs one way, Web Outlook to phone, not the other way round for me. Never had this issue before, so I don't think you're alone with similar syncing issues.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-05-20T10:36:12+00:00

    In fact, I've just noticed that the situation has now got worse! Some of my more commonly used contacts have lost their phone numbers altogether from my Outlook account, not just from the phone. Not sure when that happened, some time in the last few days.

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