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Syncing IOS contact with Office365

I am using Windows laptop with Office365 and recently switched from an Android phone to Apple IOS. After this change to IOS the question popped up how to handle my contacts. Should I put everything in iCloud and install the Outlook iCloud plugin, or not?

I ended up in all my contacts in both Office365 (Outlook) AND IOS contacts (iCloud). And if I added a contact on my phone (for instance when you receive a call from an until then unknown number), that contact appeared only in IOS contacts, and not in Office365.

The solution

I like to have a simple architecture

• I want all my contacts in Office365; Office365 is leading\
• I want that new contacts also arrive in Office365
• As a consequence I have no contacts at all in IOS

This can be arranged as follows:

• laptop: if you have installed icloud for Windows then turn off syncing of contact/agenda to icloud
• iphone: settings->icloud; switch slide at ‘contacts’ to off (this makes new contacts go to Office365)
• iphone: contacts->groups: let only shwo the Exchange contacts (if you have more than one contacts map in Exchange, select the correct one(s))
• iphone: now you can delete all contacts from iCloud (if you have these also in Office365)

Written on January 2, 2022