Help please: Syncing contacts between Android and Hotmail

[mark1234]

I realise this is off topic for this forum, but people here know stuff, so I figured I'd ask anyway...

The wife has bought a Galaxy Note and I've been lumbered with tech support on it - having never touched Android before. I'm trying to make the device perform basic functions at the moment. How do I make this thing edit, add and then sync contact changes on the phone to Hotmail/Outlook.com? I can get server changes to sync to the phone, but can't edit or add at all on the device. Even whatever brick of a phone we had 12 years ago would let us add and edit contacts!

I did have to download the official Outlook.com app as it sync's multiple calendars, and the built in functionality would only sync the primary calendar. All the contacts have the Outlook icon, but are uneditable using the built in functionality and the Outlook.com app just seems to sync this data rather then allow editing.

Any ideas gratefully received. (I don't know why she couldn't have just gotten a Windows Phone where all the issues I fought with yesterday would have JustWorked™ )

[Venom51]

So are you claiming that if you long press on a contact on the android device you don't get the edit item in the menu or it's greyed out and unusable?

[mark1234]

A long press does give a pop up. I can add contacts to the phone or to the pointless gmail address we have to have to use the app store, but nothing for the Hotmail address.

[Venom51]

Unless you have made Gmail the default email mechanism it should ask you for which account you want to build the contact.

[mark1234]

The only reason we've given it a gmail address was because the Play store wants one. We've never even run the gmail app. How can I make sure it's really not using gmail for anything?

[Venom51]

Menu -> Settings -> Accounts -> Select the account you want to look at. -> Uncheck the things you don't want to sync under that account. So in the case of Gmail if you only want use t for the app store uncheck Calendar, Contacts and Mail.

Under the phone contacts -> hit menu -> Select More -> Select Settings -> Select Contact Storage -> Choose the Account you'd like to use to store email contacts under.

If you would like it to ask each time than uncheck the 'Remember this choice' selection at the bottom.

[mark1234]

Hi, thanks for this.

I'd already got everything unticked for the gmail account, yet it still shows as an option when adding a contact. My menu doesn't have the Select Contact Storage option, or anything that looks similar.

I've also tried setting up the native functionality just to sync contacts, leaving everything else to the Outlook.com app. Except then I get no contact sync at all. At least the Outlook.com app does a one-way sync from the server to the phone!

(This experience is completely validating my existing decision to switch to WP8 when my WP7 contracts ends next month!)

[Venom51]

After testing it on the phone this looks to be a problem with the Outlook.com app. The only portion of a contact you an create is the name. It then disappears from view until you search for the contact name. This is a Microsoft problem...not an Android problem.

I just confirmed this by importing some saved contacts from my SD into the Outlook.com account on my phone. All contact were almost immediately showing up on the web interface after the import. This looks to be a new contact creation only bug in the Outlook.com app.

The underlying technology used is the same EAS mechanism your WP7/8 phone will use. I'd report the problem or find out the server names and do a manual setup of a corporate account to the Outlook.com services. The Outlook.com app hides that from you during the initial setup.

[mark1234]

Thanks for looking into this. Looks a very poor show that the official app can't sync contacts. I've already tried setting the account up as Exchange Server, using the m.hotmail.com server - this is how I was checking the native functionality that failed to sync any contacts.

[Venom51]

Thanks for looking into this. Looks a very poor show that the official app can't sync contacts.

I want to make clear my last post. Contacts that were previously created outside of the Outlook.com app work just as expected. When imported to the phone the first sync immediately deposits them on the Outlook.com server side of things.

It's only new contacts you try to create inside the Outlook.com app that fail to sync or hell for that matter let you put in anything other than a contact name.

[mark1234]

We realised that the Outlook website can be used to add and edit contacts. Not seamless by any stretch of the imagination, but it works.

Next question: can we change the emoticon icons used? The Android logo based ones are naff.

[Venom51]

We realised that the Outlook website can be used to add and edit contacts. Not seamless by any stretch of the imagination, but it works.

Next question: can we change the emoticon icons used? The Android logo based ones are naff.

I'm sure you can but have never bothered to try since I don't use them.

[mark1234]

From what I've read it requires either a new messaging app, or rooting the file to start messing with font files. The wife will have to live with the icons.