Outlook for Android is syncing Just Part of the Contacts (those in Contact Folders)

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for posting your concern in the Community. I hope you're having a great day, in spite of the issues you're experiencing in Outlook for Android. Let's try to address your concern.

If you set up your email as an IMAP or POP account, your calendars and contacts won't sync. You'll have to add them as an Exchange ActiveSync account. Also make sure that your email app has the correct permissions to access your calendar and contacts.

To troubleshoot the issue, follow the steps below:

1. In the Outlook app, go to Settings > Tap the account that is not syncing > Tap Reset Account. Check to see if your account is syncing.

2. Still not working? Delete and re-add your email account:

From Settings, tap the account that is not syncing > tap Delete Account > Delete From This Device.

Then re-add your email account in Outlook for Android.

Note: If you're prompted to set up your email as an IMAP account, your email provider may not be able to sync calendar and contacts. Contact them or your administrator for help. If you're asked to enter server settings, you need to get server settings from your provider.

If the issue still occurs, kindly reinstall Outlook on your device. If the issue still persists after reinstalling Outlook, I recommend that you submit your concern to our Outlook in-app support team. To get in touch with them, click on this link.

I'd also like to get the version of your device and Outlook.

To notify me and have me get back to you, simply reply to this thread.

Hello Regile!

Thanks for kindly trying to respond. Unfortunately, as I said, the synchronization is happening successfully, and yet some specific contacts are not syncing. All the described procedures were tried regarding the outlook app.

Furthermore, I have tried to find the same contacts on my old Lumia phone and on my computer, using People, and it seems like the same contacts are missing. I'm highly confident, at this point, that Outlook is just syncing the main "Contacts" folder and none of the other folders. For instance, none of the contacts in the selected folder here (names omitted for privacy) is syncing.

The outlook version I'm using is 4.1.27 (394), and the device is a Xiaomi Redmi Note 8, with Android 9, updated yesterday.

I have already checked whether it is syncing or not, removed and added the account again, reinstalled the app, etc. I guess this is a functionality Outlook simply does not have (apparently).

That means I'll have to do by adding the account into another app. Yes, I'm aware about the POP/IMAP limitation on contacts and already tried to add as an Exchange account. Here are the steps I followed (I have found them again, later): https://support.office.com/en-us/article/set-up-email-in-android-email-app-71147974-7aca-491b-978a-ab15e360434c

Unfortunately, I am just getting an error while trying to add the account. It tells me to "contact the IT admin", but in my case there is no admin, as it's an outlook.com individual account. The only thing I'm doing different from the instructions is that I have 2-steps authentication and I am using an app password instead of my actual password.

I appreciate your response. I'll be consulting our Internal Support team to know if this is working as expected or if there are any workaround that we can do to address this issue.

Kindly expect an update from me within 7 days.

Thanks.

You state that you are using an Outlook.com mail account, under normal circumstances this would be an Exchange mail account, and there is No Contacts folder in this type of mail account.

Hello Regile,

Just to update the question, I tried again by the next days the procedures described in the link (the one from my last reply, about how to set up Exchange contacts on Android), and yesterday it just worked. I guess that was a temporary error of some kind.

Now all my contacts (at least those who I am aware about) seem to be in sync!!

Thanks for your response anyway.

Best regards

Bruno Moreira-Guedes

Glad to hear that. Should the issue reoccur or if you have any other concern, don't hesitate to post back in the Community.

Thanks.

Dear Palcouk,

I'm not sure I could understand your reply, but indeed there are contact folders in this type of account. You can check it out by opening web version of People app: https://outlook.live.com/people/

Perhaps, it seems that it is not implemented in the App.

Also, I didn't understand your screenshot, as you took it from the Email interface rather than the People interface. You're looking at Email folders, you're not going to find Contacts in there.

Best regards,

Bruno Moreira-Guedes

Hi MSFT agents,

have you received any feedback from your Internal Support team?

The issue still prevents syncing up contacts from all folders - except the default "Contacts" folder. This is a deal breaker for users with a big number of contacts arranged in folders.

In fact it seems this issue has not been solved since 2018 (link: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/322590-outlook-2016-for-windows/suggestions/34722535-syncing-outlook-contacts-subfolders-with-my-androi)

Thanks,

outlook app does not sync contact subfolders on android

In the near past I played with subfolders below the standard contact folders as well. What I found was, that the subfolder itself had not been sync'd (pity!) but the contacts WITHIN the subfolders had been sync'd.

Looks like it is the following uservoice feedback: https://outlook.uservoice.com/forums/293346-outlook-for-android/suggestions/38294656-sync-contact-groups