Forum Discussion
Outlook contacts not syncing with Teams, why?
KaiStenberg Please try adding a contact in Outlook with just a name and a phone number. Sign out of Teams desktop manually (top right corner) and back in again. Does it appear under Calls -> Contacts in Teams?
If would have been nice to have they both synced. 🙂
So as I see it, if you have outlook contacts with phonenumber and email address, without company they don't get synced into Teams contacts 😞
KaiStenberg Please try adding a contact in Outlook with just a name and a phone number. Sign out of Teams desktop manually (top right corner) and back in again. Does it appear under Calls -> Contacts in Teams?
Hi again ChristianBergstrom I think I have a conclusion.
Just add a new contact or update an old one and restart Teams and it will show up.
Thanks for pushing me testing different way to figure this out.
Problem solved for now I think. Have a great day and stay safe.
- It is not solved for me. I have old contacts in Outlook with Company Name and Phone Number and they do not sync. I can create a new contact with the same name, no company and a phone number and the contacts syncs to Teams. If a user has hundreds of old contacts they do not sync to Teams.
For all who will listen, after a 6 month long case with 365 support I finally have a fix to the Outlook/Teams contact sync problem!!! you have to put Teams into 'Public Preview' mode.
First follow link below to make the option available on the teams app:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__docs.microsoft.com_en-2Dus_microsoftteams_public-2Dpreview-2Ddoc-2Dupdates&d=DwMGaQ&c=rMypsi2XMCFofe1ap9ofEUX5gM1yzrrx-U6jWPgwRl8&r=3tTVQrzOrrKx5QiBggYtUOXxmVXmEl_ZqMy6mxisxys&m=3CnR06mwHKWmz_w7YFNofNYI2Z4ImEbqnJsMT7ViWHE&s=gB7lXr3TLaArn0-2ZFB-wR5ul5H9Y3zkBVp6D1OtR38&e=
Wait a bit for the policy to propagate to the clients then turn the setting on in the app
Close teams and reopen. Then BOOM!! ALL contacts will start to load
KaiStenberg Should new outlook contacts continue to sync after I sign out once or am I going to have to sign out and in everytime I add a contact? We are also experiencing a lot of issues where signing out and in does not resolve the sync issue.
- Hi, you do not have to sign out / sign in manually it just quickens the appearance of the contact in Teams. There are a couple of things to take into consideration though, such as environment (cloud/on-prem, coexistence/upgrade mode in Teams) as the behavior will differ. Access Outlook contacts is not supported with mailboxes on premise, for example (see table).
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/exchange-teams-interact
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/upgrade-to-teams-on-prem-coexistence#contacts
I am aware of several UserVoice requests for an enhanced way to manage and sync Outlook contacts with Teams.
KaiStenberg I had a feeling that was the issue. Good to hear and glad to help!
Hi ChristianBergstrom, this was interesting. Added a new contact without email address just company name and phonenumber on E164 standard. Did a restart and it was added.
But old contacs does not show up for some reason if I don't add a company name. Real strange.
