Global Contact Sync Issues

Question

As an IT solutions provider for various companies I came across several users in different companies last week having the same issue. Users would create or update contact cards for their company global addresses, but the contacts would not sync within the individual companies. Whether it was creation of new contacts, or updating addresses for old contacts, users would not see the contact sync when changes were made in the contact cards through Outlook. Most users allow their contact lists to populate to their phones for ease of use, but of course the changes would only happen locally for the user instead of the global or company lists. I have seen a couple users get the updates made, but not all. I was hoping to understand better as to why these changes and updates are moving out to some users (very few) but not all. I appreciate the feedback, as I am currently stumped.

Answer 1

Tommy,

One of my users is using 365 Outlook which is the most up-to-date, and also using Outlook on his mobile, which is sufficiently updated as well. His contacts populate from the desktop application to his phone normally, but this is no longer updating. Similarly, he is having the issue of creating the contact on his desktop application, but the contact card does not populate after creating it. The contact will only show when he attempts to create the contact again. What might be the fix for this? Additionally for the previous part of this post, the versions of Outlook are the same, and the contacts are still not in proper sync.

Answer 2

Hello Matthew,

If they are using shared contact please ensure all users are using same version of Outlook desktop client, and try with remove and re-add by refer Share calendar and contacts in Microsoft 365 - Outlook | Microsoft Docs to do further check.

Kind Regards,

Tommy

Answer 3

Thank you for the quick response, Tommy!

I spoke with the users, and the web portals are only showing basic information. They are using the Shared Contacts for intra-company information on the machine application for Outlook 365, which some will sync, and some will not. The contact cards in the local application of Outlook 365 will list details such as addresses that do not update. Some users are not seeing entire contacts as well, but when they try to add them again, the contact card has already been made, despite being unavailable for viewing. Is there any further information you need?

Appreciatively,

-- Matthew H

Answer 4

Hello Matthew,

Thanks for choosing Microsoft Community.

According to your description, may I carefully confirm some scenarios you have done to narrow down this issue? Could you please kindly let us know where users created and updated contact cards? How they did it? Furthermore, would you mind kindly let us know have these users have checked in Outlook on the web? If not, we kindly request them access Outlook web application https://outlook.office365.com/ to do further check.

Kind Regards,

Tommy