outlook contacts

[jogold]

i have an outlook.com account that is installed on two computers and one smartphone.
work comp shows 4338 contacts (gotta clean up the mess one day)
home comp shows 2959 contacts (also a mess)
smartphone shows 5918 contacts (view is set to exchange contacts only)
outlook.com shows 3876 contacts
as in "what the heck"
all three devices have been connected to the internet for months and should all be syncronized
i've working around this but i am curious as to why this is and what can be done about it.

thx
jo,
p.s. this is about 20 years of electronic contacts spaning at least 15 different types of devices and syncs when moving to a new device. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY it messes up so beautifully

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'd start by setting up fresh profiles on the computers, ensuring there are no leftover PST files connected. What version of Outlook is being used?

The smart phone...ya never know there, so many different versions and apps for email. Using Outlook for Android or iOS? Or just the native app or a 3rd party?

 

[jogold]

outlook 2016 on both computers
android contacts is the stock contacts app from samsung android
If i set up new accounts on the two outlooks then i will just get whats on outlook.com i want to have all three synced - once and for all.
And that doesnt answer the smartphone difference.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Outlook <==> Exchange...any/all computers Outlook should be 100% synced and the same. That's one of the beauties of Outlook/Exchange.
I would add a new Outlook profile on each computer...and see if adding a fresh clean account squares away the computers. Adding a new Outlook profile still retains your current profiles..and you can go in and delete any of them down the road.

Can't answer for smart phones...with thousands of variations of smart phones, brands, models, custom skins, carries tweaked apps, different versions of operating systems, different apps...who knows for sure, smart phones are a roll of the dice. One thing to help make an Office 365/Exchange experience more consistent is to...use Outlook! Why rely on the typically crippled/inadequate native apps? Outlook and Exchange are made for each other. Setup Outlook on the android and see if that works better. There's a toggle switch in the settings to export to the phones contacts...else, Outlook and its contacts stay separate.

 

[jogold]

now i have to find the time to do this,
we'll see what happens

though i'd like to know why this happens

thx to you both

 

[bdoggman]

I hate outlook! I mean with a passion. It always always has problems. But even though I hate it I'm forced to fix it because so many people have it.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I hate outlook! I mean with a passion. It always always has problems. But even though I hate it I'm forced to fix it because so many people have it.

It's really meant to work with Exchange....POP/IMAP support was sort of half arsed added as an afterthought, and it's not good at that. But in the business environment with Exchange...it shines, it works very well. That's that it was first and foremost designed to do.