Forum Discussion
Outlook contact to Android contact list
The option I gave you does exactly that; Sync Outlook contacts to the Android Contacts app. Just click on the question mark in front of the option to see the description of this toggle.
Robert is correct, you can sync your contacts so that you can then use the list to call people. I have mine set up and working. Roberts "Settings" option works.
Thanks Allan. I can now also confirm that it works to sync from Outlook to the Contact app. But what about the reverse? I have not gotten it to work to add a contact via either the phone app or the contact app (and have it saved to the Office 365 account) and then have it appear in Office 365. Any help of this?
I don't think Outlook on Android supports creating & then syncing contacts back up to your Exchange Server account. I think you have to create in Outlook proper (I use Outlook 2016) and they then propagate down to your mobile. Doesn't always happen immediately either, can take a while. If they don't sync, go to Contacts on your mobile, open settings from the hamburger menu (top left). Once in "Settings" tap "Accounts". In Accounts you should see an entry "Automatically sync data", make sure its set to "on".
To force a sync you can always go to Outlook Mobile, pick Settings & then select the account you are syncing. Sync Contacts should be set to "on" and if you wish you can "Reset Account" which refreshes Outlook on your mobile and forces an update of the data which will subsequently add all of your contacts including any new ones.
If all else fails, go to Outlook Mobile "Settings"/Help & Feedback/Contact Support. Raise a query with the Outlook developers. They're pretty responsive and helpful.
Thanks Allan for your great explanation and recommendations.
The export and import procedure doesn't seem to be feasible for an normal end user, and for just one new contact at the time.
So from what I understand the following scenario is best practice: when an Android user receives a phone call from a new number, it is not possible to have the phone number information harvested from the phone app by creating a new contact (and have it synced to Office 365).
Instead what you have to do is to open your Outlook (either online or desktop) and manually enter the phone number for the new contact.
That is not very good information management practice but if it is the current best practice I will have to accept it.