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StuartK73's avatar
StuartK73
Steel Contributor
Jul 21, 2020

Sync Native Contacts with Outlook

Hi All

 

We have implemented a Conditional Access policy that BLOCKS native email clients on iOS and Android devices.

 

End Users  / Help Desk staff are instructed to:

 

  • Delete the email account on the native email client
  • Use Outlook as the Approved App for corp email

 

Now users have raised the issue that the contacts that were in native email client are no longer present in Outlook, phone calls / texts have no contact details etc.

 

Is there a better way to do this?

 

Info appreciated

4 Replies

  • Moe_Kinani's avatar
    Moe_Kinani
    Bronze Contributor
    Was in the same boat and had to enable Save Contacts setting in Outlook using Intune for both IOS and Android.

    Hope it helps!
    Moe
    • GMela's avatar
      GMela
      Iron Contributor

      Hi Moe_KinaniStuartK73 .

       

      We have also this Problem and I still have no answer, do you find something else? 

       

      Interesting is that,

      - Any Contact you edit or create in the Native App (Work Profile), sync asap to exchange and appears in Outlook. Reverse NO, any Contact Edited or created in Outlook do not sync to the Native App (in Work Profile).

      - But, if you go to Outlook\ Preferences\ Your Account\ and Disable "Contact Sync" (work Profile), wait a couple of seconds and enabled it again, all contact are download from Exchange in to the Native App..... WT!!!!!

       

      So at the moment we just use that as Workaround, make sure all is ok in Outlook, disable the sync and enable it again.... 😞

       

      We have already set up the Setting "Save Contacts..." in Intune and also the "Sync app with native contacts app" in the App protection Policy.

       

      I will appreciate any suggest.

      • StuartK73's avatar
        StuartK73
        Steel Contributor
        I spent ages on this and eventually had MS look at. There are 2 settings at play here, 1 is in the App Config policy for Outlook, but there is a similar setting tucked away under Device Config > App Store, Doc Viewing, Gaming > Allow managed apps to write contacts to unmanaged contacts accounts = YES

        Why? IDK, I guess it's for the people who DON'T use App Configs

        Hope that helps