OUTLOOK 365 FOR MAC SYNC WITH IPHONE FOR ANDROID

The reconciliation process is designed to iron out synchronization problems.

One solution is to wait 24 hours for Outlook’s internal contact reconciliation process to run. For instance, Figure 2 shows that a set of contacts are listed as “Microsoft.” This came about when I updated a bunch of contacts in Outlook to set their company to be Microsoft.įigure 2: A synchronization error creates some odd iOS contacts The Solution

One day you might realize that something’s up when you look at your iOS contacts and find that duplicate contacts exist or that a bug caused bad contacts to be created. In fact, they’re more likely to accrue over time. The symptoms of synchronization glitches might not be immediately obvious. Making sure that Outlook mobile only saves contacts for an account on a single device is an easy step to limit the potential for duplication. Microsoft is working with Apple to resolve why errors occur, especially in synchronization of Outlook contacts from iCloud to multiple devices. Synchronization glitches can happen from time to time. Outlook synchronizes with the native contact app and handles contact updates processed on the device.

OUTLOOK 365 FOR MAC SYNC WITH IPHONE FOR ANDROID

The contact synchronization mechanism is different in Outlook for Android and isn’t handled here. When clicked, the link opens Outlook and displays the contact details.įigure 1: The link to Outlook in an iOS contact record Outlook contacts are clearly marked when viewed through the iOS contacts app because Outlook creates an application-specific link for the contact (Figure 1). Outlook must be running in the foreground (or active in memory) for synchronization to occur. Updates made in Outlook contacts (in desktop, OWA, or mobile) are synchronized by Outlook mobile to the iOS contacts app. Contacts added through the iOS contacts app aren’t known to Outlook and therefore don’t synchronize back to the contacts folder in the user’s mailbox. Originally you could only add, update, or remove contacts through Outlook desktop or OWA, but in 2017 Microsoft added the ability to add, edit, and delete contacts through mobile clients. However, in this scenario, Microsoft recommends that contacts for an account are only saved on one device as otherwise the potential for contact duplication becomes very high. One advantage of storing contacts in iCloud is that this handles contact synchronization with multiple Apple devices (for example, an iPhone and an iPad). In this case, Outlook synchronizes contacts to the contacts app and the contacts app then synchronizes to iCloud. Outlook for iOS needs a synchronization target to get contacts to the native contacts app. In any case, to set the context for iOS, we know that synchronization of Outlook contacts is one-way from Exchange Online to the device.

I can’t say if the same thing happens in Outlook for Android because I have never used that client (in anger). But one thing that hasn’t changed is the frustration of multiple contacts in Outlook for iOS. Lots has happened since, especially to expand the functionality of Outlook mobile. I last wrote about managing contacts in Outlook mobile in March 2017.

Outlook 365 for mac sync with iphone