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Microsoft Exchange Question, please help!

SRLMJ23

SRLMJ23

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
2,330
1,434
Central New York
Ok, so when I add a contact on my iPhone it does not sync with Outlook and go to my PC, however, when I add a contact from Outlook it will sync to my iPhone. I don't really know what's going on here, this all used to work flawlessly.

I use 1&1 as my MS Exchange Host (if that matters to anyone).

I also have MobileMe but always turn off the syncing of contacts for MobileMe because I like Outlooks interface better. I guess I could use MobileMe if I have to but would prefer to use Exchange.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
 
What I've found is that Apple seems to have changed something. When you create a contact on the iPhone, it gets created in a contacts list "on the iPhone" and not in your contacts list that syncs with Exchange. Why it does this I do not know and how to fix it I don't know that yet either.

BTW, I used to use 1&1....they suck. Switched to Sherweb and I'm much happier. However, looking to move to Microsoft's Office 360 soon. Signed up for the beta and I'm crossing my fingers.
 
The completely weird thing about this is: My calendar in Outlook sync's perfectly with my iPhone and vice versa, it's just the contact's that don't.

I don't know what Apple did but they really have messed something up. Anyone else having MS Exchange issues with their contacts??
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Have you checked your settings to make sure the exchange account is the default contact account?
I use a google account through exchange activesync and accounts created on my iPhone sync back to the google account fine
 
Here's what I did to get mine to work (I have a feeling it was more luck than actual steps) but here it goes:

1. I turned off my Exchange Account contact syncing and had all the contacts erased off the iPhone.

2. I then sync'd my MobileMe Contacts to my phone (which are just a copy of my Exchange contacts) and began to start testing MobileMe to see if contacts/calendar events would sync both ways...they did.

3. I then opened up Outlook and made sure ALL of my folders were updated. I went through and deleted contacts that no longer were of use to me. Outlook sync'd all the folders and I left it open.

4. Now I turned off my MobileMe contacts/calendar sync and deleted all the information from my iPhone, so I had absolutely zero contacts and calendar appointments on my iPhone.

5. Next I turned back on my Exchange contacts/calendar sync and as usual the contacts and calendar all sync'd back fine.

6. Now I tested things out. First I made a "test" contact on my iPhone, it sync'd properly with Outlook, I then deleted that contact on my iPhone, it sync'd again fine with Outlook.

7. Next I made a "test" contact in Outlook and had it sync with the iPhone and it did so properly. I then deleted that contact in Outlook and it was removed from my iPhone like it should have been.

8. Now I just have my Exchange account set to sync my Mail, Calendar, & Contacts, and everything is working fine. For MobileMe I just have Mail and Notes syncing.

I highly doubt this guide will help anyone but it worked for me so maybe it will work with people who are experiencing issues with Exchange. I personally believe the key is leaving Outlook open the whole time and let it fully sync, I would go days, even weeks without opening Outlook and I think that had something to do with the syncing issue. Now I will be sure to have Outlook open most all day, or open it throughout the day often.

I am using Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus, which includes Outlook 2010, just so people know what I was using.

Hope this may help some people, I'm going on about 40 hours of no sleep so excuse me if there are typos or things not really explained well, I am going to try and sleep so if you have any questions for me just ask them in the thread and I will respond as soon as I can.


Patience is also needed, I've timed how long it's taken for some of my syncs and it ranges from anywhere from Instantly to 3-5 minutes before things sync. So don't give up quick, allow the servers to do their things.

Later people!
 
Last edited:
SRLMJ23 said:
Being a Microsoft guy I should know this, but what is Microsoft Office 360?
Click to expand...

Not only am I a Microsoft guy (used to work there), I specialize in Exchange. :D

Keep in mind, contacts don't sync with Outlook, they sync to Exchange. Think of it as a pyramid with Exchange at the top, both the iPhone and Outlook sync to it. Therefore, your version of Office/Outlook, has nothing to do with this. It all has to do with how Apple siloed off each of the groups of contacts.

That being said, Phil A. actually has the answer. Under Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Contacts -> Default Account you can select an account to have your contacts created in when you create a new contact. Mine is set to "On My iPhone" and beneath it says "New contacts created outside of a specific account will be added to this account." So I guess that means somehow we've been "outside of a specific account" when creating our contacts. Not sure that's true in my case, but I'll go with it. I'm changing that default.

I messed up the name, it's Office 365. It's Microsoft's new cloud solution that includes Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync.

http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx
 
Yeah, sorry I was running on zero sleep so I was a little out of it. I know that Outlook is just the application that Exchange uses to sync too.

It's weird, everything is working fine now...sometimes it takes a few seconds for Exchange to sync a contact and sometimes it takes a few minutes, I assume this has to do with 1&1 servers being slow or something.

As far as Office 365, I also signed up for the beta and I am also a TechNet Subscriber so hopefully I'll have access to it. I have access to every Windows OS, Office Suite, and Programs you can think of. Little pricey at 500.00 a year!
 
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