What is status on error(bug) resulting in duplicates or silently disappearing(vanishing) contacts(people) in Outlook 2013 using outlook.com, live.com and hotmail.com?

Hi,

Thank you for reporting about the contact issue with Outlook and Outlook.com.

I was able to reproduce the issue on my end.

We appreciate your feedback. Microsoft is committed to continuously improving your experience with our products. We listen to all feedback and consider it for future releases.

Thank you.

Hi Nayana,

Thank you for the quick confirmation of the issue.

Is there any way I can track the status of the issue? or should I just test again every month/year?

Is it possible for you to test the same sequence when connected to an Exchange Server such as  Microsoft Exchange Online?

I am interested in the impact on users with Exchange Server because I based on this and some other issues now consider changing to Exchange Online.

Thanks.

Thank you for the reply.

Firstly, to know about the latest update you may keep checking the Office/Outlook blogs or it may be released as Microsoft Office updates as well.

This issue doesn’t persists in Microsoft Exchange Server account in Outlook.

For more information about Microsoft Exchange Server, you may also post in Exchange Server forum link given below.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exchangesvrclients/threads

Thank you.

Thank you Nayana!

Nice straight answers :-)

I had hoped to use outlook.com as a simple low cost back end to "run the family calendars like a business". But with critical issues in the core functionality of both contacts and calendar invites this no longer seems realistic.

You may want to suggest the management of outlook.com to take their own medicine. This will hopefully lead them to remove functionality they don't want to test and make sure that the remaining functionality is thoroughly tested.

It is soothing to know that Exchange Online doesn't have the same problem. I will certainly do a trial to check if it fits better for our needs.

Thanks again, have a nice day.

Thank you for the reply.

There is an update about this ‘Outlook.com’ issue in Outlook 2013.

This issue is caused after installing one of the Outlook update which was released in this month.

Microsoft is working on this issue and the fix would be out very soon.

The current workaround to get rid of this problem is to remove this Office update.

If you’re using ‘Click to run version Office 2013’ then follow the article given below to revert to earlier version of Office 2013 Click-to-Run.

If you’re using the MSI version of Office 2013, then remove the update number KB2770432 from Windows updates.

Thank you.

Hi!

Thank you very much. I really appreciate the quick analysis and confirmation of the fix being out soon.

I  guess the issue was introduced by one of the Outlook 2013 specific updates described in KB2956087 which is part of the February Update to Office described in KB3032763.

This Office update also includes an important fix for the vulnerability MS15-013 and this certainly makes me keep the update. I will rather update contacts on web or phone than risk that a malicious Office file is used to compromise my computer.

Finally, I am truly impressed that you and your Microsoft colleagues were able to confirm a fix within 10 days :-)

Best regards.

I have exactly the same Problem!

I first thought, that the Problem first occured with the February 2015 Hotfixes for Outlook and Office.

So i restored a Systemsnapshot so that my last updates where from December 2014.

Still the same Problem.

Because i didn't edit so much the contacts i couldn't say when the error first occured.

However - the contacts app for Windows 8 seems also to have a Problem with the cache - by playing arround with Outlook 2013 Sync - creating and deleting contacts suddenly the contacts in the contacts app persist - while in outlook 2013, in Outlook contacts web and on my Handy with Exchange active sync ther are no contacts - which is correct.

The only way to get rid of the wrong entrys in the contacts app is to reinstall the app.

So there are two Problems - with outlook 2013 and a Connection to outlook.com and the contacts app (Windows 8.1) which is missing Synchronisation.

I guess, that the Problem may be is on outlook.com itself?

Hope that the bug will be found very fast and fixed - because now contacts with outlook2013 are not usable.

Thanks Thorsten

Thank you Thorsten!

It is great to get some additional observations.

Based on your information I tried out the workaround proposed by Nayana, and I can now confirm that the issue remains even after reverting to the previous version  (December 2014).

I can add that the issue remains even after reverting to the version before that (November 2014). In this version I also reproduced the issue after creating a completely new Outlook cache under a new Windows account to rule out any doubt of a corrupted cache.

I finally tried the test sequence described in my first post in the Win People App and the iPhone Contacts App. I tested twice in each App and this did not result in any duplicates.

So my current conclusion is that this an issue related to Outlook 2013 and outlook.com, and that the issue can be reproduced in minimum these versions of Office 2013:

• February 2015 Update, Version: 15.0.4693.1002
• December 2014 Update, Version: 15.0.4675.1002
• November 2014 Update, Version: 15.0.4667.1002

I didn't try older versions.

My Office 2013 was configured in the Spring 2014, so something has changed in Outlook 2013 or outlook.com since. (edited Mar3, 2015)

Now I would be very pleased to hear some news from Microsoft again. Can you confirm the latest observations and how do they impact your analysis and plans for a fix?

Thanks, Ole

Notes on reverting to older version of Office 2013:

I have the 64bit Click-to-run version and therefore followed steps in described in KB2770432. Additionally I did a restart and then checked the version before starting each test. Automatic updates were reactivated immediately after the last tests.

Notes on the Win People App (version 17.5.9600.20689):

I noticed that Win People App only updates automatically when the mail app is added to the lock screen. Otherwise you will have to close and restart the App to make it synchronize. The People App appears to silently loose updates if updates are performed on multiple devices without making sure that the data in the Win People App are fully updated before modification. I prefer Outlook and therefore never user the People App. To me the App ratings already talk their own clear language, so let's start any additional App only issues in another thread.