Public Folder Contacts

Good afternoon.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why a seemingly simple task is turning into something really difficult.

Our very small company would like to share contacts via Outlook. We would like those contacts to also sync on our account manager's mobile devices. Sounds pretty simple, but it's not.

I have done the following:

  1. Created a public folder in Outlook.
  2. Copied our office manager's contacts into the public folder.
    1. She used to send everyone an email and we would all copy the new customer into our "My Contacts" folder just to keep current. Kind of a pain and a waste of time!
  3. Made the contacts list into an address book.
  4. Everyone can see/edit/use those contacts now, which is fantastic!
  5. Tried to figure out a way to allow that public contacts folder to be accessed on our mobile devices.
    1. Impossible without something else.
  6. Downloaded the free version of Cirasync app for android and apple devices.
    1. Works very well, however, when someone calls or texts from the public contacts folder, no one has any idea who is calling or texting because I can't seem to figure out how to integrate it with the native contacts on either an apple or android device.
  7. Does anyone have a solution for this? Is there even a solution for this? I can't believe something so critical to a business is so difficult to implement.

Thank you for your help!

Chris Gontarz

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Hello Chris

Going to suggest something to "simulate" a public folder given that

#1 - Mobile doesn't see public folders
#2 - Haven't found anything that provides a clean solution to your issue
#3 - You mentioned that this is a "very small company" - so how practical this would be depends entirely on the definition of "very small"

Instead of using a public folder, you might want to consider setting up a user account purely for the management of contact data (i.e. contacts@whereever) and have everyone add the email account to their mobile devices (as well as their PCs)

Not the cleanest solution in the world but it does circumvent the universe of public folders on mobile devices.
Karl

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Karl:

Thanks so much for the suggestion. Really appreciate your time! I think I'll try that and see if it works better.

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Do come back and let us know how it goes one way or another.
Karl

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It may be a bit, but I will let you know.

Thanks again!

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Will be here however how long it takes :-)
Karl

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Karl:

Since we use an MS 365 business subscription for each user, am I correct in assuming that the additional user account has to have a mailbox? I created a "test" user, but did not grant them an Exchange Online license because that would be an additional monthly cost.

When logging in as that user, I don't even get Outlook as one of the Office 365 applications that can be selected. Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks for the help!

Chris

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Yes that account would need its own mailbox and the contacts stored in that mailbox. Then it would be case of setting Outlook mobile to pick the contacts from that mailbox but you are correct - in this scenario it would be an additional cost which may not make it viable - was just a suggestion as a possible alternative.
Karl

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Got it. Good to know. I'm assuming it can't be a shared mailbox that allows email? Or can it?

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Not going to pretend that I've played with a shared mailbox on Outlook mobile - I haven't so can't provide any first hand knowledge about whether or not any limitations exist in terms of contacts.

Adding a shared mailbox to Outlook mobile is described in

Add a shared mailbox to Outlook mobile
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/add-...
Karl

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Karl:

Just a follow-up on the shared mailbox. I did add a shared mailbox, and from what I see, there aren't contacts for a shared mailbox. So... I guess this isn't going to work either.

Solution to this problem is to have Microsoft figure out a way to have shared contacts available for mobile devices. Simple as that!

Chris

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Last updated May 8, 2024 Views 1,061 Applies to: