How to use Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to sync Hotmail and Outlook contacts to Android?

Question

I have sync issues with Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, when using its service with my Hotmail account. (I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with Android 6.0.1, if that helps)

These are the steps I took to reproduce the issue,

1. Go to the settings page
2. Under the Personalization Section I select Accounts
3. Select Add Account
4. Select Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
5. Entered my Email Address and Password
6. Select Next
7. Uncheck all the checkboxes except Sync Contacts.
8. Select Next
9. Name the Account and select Done

Now that I had setup the account, I took the following steps to test my contact sync

1. Create a new contact on the device using the contacts app and selecting the microsoft exchange activesync as the account and fill in a name and contact number.
2. Save the contact.
3. Go to outlook's webapp
4. log into the same microsoft account and create a contact.
5. Save the contact.

Finally I went to my phone and made sure sync was switched on and looked for the contact I had made using the outlook's webapp. I also looked on outlook's webapp for the contact created on the phone.

The final result:

• Sync from Outlook.com to android => WORKING

(The contact I created using the outlook.com web app was visible in both the web app and the phone)

• Sync from Android to Outlook => BROKEN

(The contact was only visible on the phone ie: missing from the outlook web app)

How can I fix the BROKEN Android to Outlook sync?

___________________________________________UPDATE___________________________________________

1. I haven't tried using another android phone, I don't have one lying around at the moment. I'll give it a shot when I can and let you know.
2. I do not sync my contacts with my google account, how is this possible? I am trying to sync my MS account contacts to my android phone. I wasn't aware of a connection between the MS account and my Google account contacts.
3. I've already tried syncing the emails, no luck. Issue still persists.

Answer 1

Have you tried connecting another Android phone? It would be a nice AB testing to see where's the problem.

The first answer that comes to mind is to check whether your contacts not set to sync with Google contacts. In some cases that prevents everything from working correctly.

Another solution is to enable syncing email alongside with syncing contacts. Some Android phones don't update other data correctly till emails syncing is turned off.

And the last option is switching to the software called Akruto to check if that could fix everything. You can find all instructions and video guide on the official website: http://www.akruto.com/best-ways-to-sync-android-with-microsoft-outlook/

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

So after a few weeks of trying to figure out the root cause of the issue, it turns out that Microsoft Exchange Active Sync only supports One Way sync for your windows live accounts to your Android devices.

This was confirmed by MS Customer Service once I installed the Outlook App for Android and had a chat about Sync Issues.

Apparently MS is working on fixing the Sync Issues and providing us with true two way Sync, but as of 29th of April 2017, this has not yet happened.

Answer 3

It turns out that Microsoft Does NOT Support 2 way sync between android devices and hotmail or windows live accounts.

I got in touch with the outlook customer service rep for android and they confirmed this.

I hope MS figures this one out sooner rather than later.