Photos aren't downloaded from outlook into Contacts app

[Mtiede]

I added my microsoft outlook account to the phone.  After it synced, I have two problems. 

First, I noticed that the photos were all missing.  Is there a way to make that happen?  It worked fine on my previous Lumia 950xl.

Second, I see too many entries there.  It looks like a lot of contacts that I deleted in outlook are still there.  When I have the People on the web exported, I noticed a bunch of junk in there too.  

So is there a problem with Contacts on the phone, a problem with outlook syncing, or a problem with both?  (or multiple problems with both)

[Mtiede]

Well, that is weird.  Got up this morning and all the photos are there.   Favorites still don't sync.  

No idea what caused it.  A delay overnight for updating?  Something I did?

So I tried adding a test record and it didn't end up in people.live.com.  So I decided to resync.  Now I don't have pictures again.  😞

I was noticing that I had 2 "Contacts" icons.  One was the orangy colored one and the other was blue.  I suspect the blue one is a Google one.  But it shows NO contacts (though it says other accounts have 1106 or something.  I see that it has the outlook account added, and I suppose that count comes somewhat from that.  But it is twice the number that should be there.  And I couldn't figure out any way to get any to display there.

So now I guess I'm back to waiting overnight and see what happens.  I tried to find the "sync" time frequency that might be associated with the account, but couldn't find such a thing anywhere.

I might try playing with the google contacts again for grins.

Or try your suggestion to at least remove and readd the device.  I hate to start over again on the phone because I have no guarantee that it will make a difference.

Which Contacts app are you using?  The default or one that might have been created when you DIDN'T set up outlook right away?

... time passes ...

The photos are back.  Didn't take overnight.  Maybe at most 3 hours between resyncing and checking just now.

[ChazzyJ]

Yeah man, that's crazy weird. I wish I had a solid answer for you. The only thing I can recommend is unregister the device from your microsoft account and reset the phone. 

I try to use all the native apps possible so I can take advantage of stuff here and there. I'm one of those people, I prefer to use the system as built and the way it was intended to be used.  So I don't have a ton of 3rd party apps if Samsung has gone out of their way to create an app that does the same thing. So in answer to your question, yes, I use the Samsung Contacts App

Hope that helps

[Mtiede]

I'm not at all sure what configuration I have now, but it looks like things are all working with contact syncing.  I can use the Contacts (Samsung orangy one) and changes I make there are reflected in outlook.com on web and vice versa.  I don't know when it does the syncing.  It doesn't appear to be right away or when sync is requested through Contacts menu items.  Or maybe it does go right away, but is really slow.

I'm used to the Windows Phone changes being immediate.  I don't remember any delay there.  Or if there was a delay it was minimal.

And I have photos.  I'll still have to experiment if I can change the photo on the phone and get the web updated and vice versa.  Though the photos don't change that often.

Maybe I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel, I just don't know what tunnel I went down to get here, which would have been nice to learn exactly how this stuff is working.

... time passes ...

Outlook calendar on the phone and the web seem to be syncing fine.  (there was a couple of initial tests that seemed to be resetting changes on me, but now it is immediately reflecting changes on each platform.  Adding, Deleting, and modifying)

Still waiting for photos test to sync.

... time passes ...

This is an odd saga.  So a photo that was modified on the phone, got up to the web.  Photo modified on the web hasn't yet made it down to the phone.  I would have expected both directions to happen at the same time

... time passes ...

Ooooohhh.  Making changes didn't seem to get reflected UNLESS outlook for android was RUNNING.  It appears to be that if it is not running, syncing won't really happen.  And if it is running, updates are practically immediate.  Although I still am not seeing the photos of new items that have come from the PC with a photo.  Maybe those are slower, or done later, or something.  Timing is now the part that remains a mystery.  Will let you know if it ever shows up.  (for the record to maybe help someone else or myself later)

... time passes ...

Ew...  I just noticed that not ALL the photos came down.  I think some of them used icons from associated web pages.  So maybe that isn't something the phone would know to do.  Not sure what the pattern of missed photos was other than that.  Or, maybe they just haven't updated yet.  

[ChazzyJ]

Excellent, glad to hear you got it sorted out. Enjoy your new phone!

[Mtiede · Accepted solution]

What I was able to figure out and I THINK is right:

1. The default Contacts app didn't update photos UNTIL outlook app was running also.  And some still don't get updated if they came from a web page being specified in the Contact on the web.

2. The duplicates seem to have come from ALL the Contacts on the web being downloaded.  That included the Contacts AND the contents of the Deleted folder and maybe the Suggested folder.  Once the Deleted folder was emptied, then almost all of the duplicates were eliminated.

  p.s.   Some of the duplicates came because Outlook on the web didn't read in first names when it imported an excel backup.

... time passes ...

Maybe it wasn't that Outlook needed to be running, but rather when I ran Outlook, I also was plugged into power.  So it might be that the photos don't download unless powered.  Looked around for something in settings that might be controlling that, but didn't find anything.