Outlook contacts suddenly disappeard from contacts app

[AC Question]

I bought a Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) last week, and everything worked fine until this morning. Suddenly all my contacts were gone. All my contacts came from my outlook account (@msn.com adress, I always use the webmail on a computer, used a windows phone before buying this one) and I can still see them in the contacts part of the outlook app, or when using my computer.

To me it seems to be a syncing problem between the contacts app and outlook, but no matter what I do, I can't find a solution.

In the settings of the contacts app, I have the "show all contacts" option on, and I could even choose to display only my outlook contacts (both have the same outcome: no contacts displayed). I also tried reinstalling the outlook app, but had no luck there either... Same for removing the account from the "accounts" part in the phone settings and adding it back in.

Hopefully someone can help!

 

[Hugh Fairgrove]

You're not alone. I'm having the same issue. All my contacts are Outlook based so this kinda sucks.

 

[GHToronto]

Hopefully this helps as I experienced this issue, more precisely ….. contacts in the Outlook.com app suddenly disappeared from both the basic Android Contacts and Phone app (on a Moto G4 Plus running Nougat) after a recent security update (although the contacts were still visible in the Outlook.com app).

I did uninstall and reinstall the Outlook.com app, turn off and turn on Sync, etc., etc. but I believe the solution for me at least was the following:

- in the Outlook.com app, click the cog in the upper right for settings, then click on the Outlook.com account in question in the “Accounts” section that appears, then turning on “Sync Contacts” (as it displays not being on).

A message displays that it may take a while. However the contacts had still not appeared after that time in the basic Android Contacts and Phone app, so I turned the phone off then back on and they appeared! There was much joy!!!

 

[poit57]

- in the Outlook.com app, click the cog in the upper right for settings, then click on the Outlook.com account in question in the “Accounts” section that appears, then turning on “Sync Contacts” (as it displays not being on).

Thank you. I'm a longtime Windows phone user, who has spent about 12 hours with a new Android phone, and I was having trouble with syncing my contacts from my Microsoft account. I kept getting a sync error in the Contacts app for my Outlook account, but your post resolved my issue. After enabling the contacts sync from the Outlook app, I went back to the Contacts app and forced another manual sync. The contacts appeared within seconds.

The last issue I'm running into with this transition from Windows to Android is my calendar. The only place I can find to view my Outlook calendar is within the Outlook app. Is there a way to see the events from my Outlook calendar in the default Calendar app?

 

[camaroz1985]

I recommend getting the app "Nine - Outlook for Android". It is worth the price if you have all your stuff based in outlook. I used it to better sync my contacts and calendars, and the agenda widget was very nice. I still used the Outlook app for mail, but Nine helped make the transition easier (I have since switched back to WP).

 

[cdayo]

To fix this, add your outlook/Hotmail account via the default Email app (not gmail) and choose "exchange" then just put in your details. It should add fine.

After that you'll be able to sync contacts from it and you can add and edit contacts to that account no problem. I had major problems with outlook too, but I used my default email app to add my account and its all good now. Make sure you turn off Outlook contacts sync as you don't need that anymore. Sad that we have to do this really, but at least it works. I use a ZTE axon 7 mini running marshmallow.

The app Nine is NOT NEEDED.

 

[Rukbat]

Remember also - contacts in the Contacts app that are entered as Device or SIM will not by synchronized to Google. They have to be entered as Google contacts. If they're listed as anything else, export your contacts to a file, then import the file as Google contacts.

 

[rktwt01]

Remember also - contacts in the Contacts app that are entered as Device or SIM will not by synchronized to Google. They have to be entered as Google contacts. If they're listed as anything else, export your contacts to a file, then import the file as Google contacts.

not everyone store thier contacts on google. i use my outlook.com (hotmail) account to store and sync all my contacts.