Outlook.com migrating to Office365, contacts

[astro46]

If this is in the wrong forum, sorry, I didn't see a better one. Go ahead and move it if appropriate.

I just read the latest Exchange newsletter about MS migrating all Outlook.com account to Office365 and being configured as Exchange accounts. The newsletter mentioned contacts syncing between devices and that all outstanding problems have been resolved. I'd like to ask specifically about a few that have kept me from using Contacts at Outlook.com:
1. Categories didn't transfer, and I would have had to create "groups" and reassign all contacts online.. Afterwards, new contact assignments to "groups" from my computer was known to be unreliable. It had to be done online.
2. Fields didn't map reliably. Fields on computer were different from online, and different from Windows Phone 8.1. Fields in one place didn't exist in another. Not talking about custom fields, just standard Ol13 fields.
3. Email groups were not recognized by Outlook.com
4. contacts did not indicate what groups they belonged to, as contacts do with categories in OL13.

Those items were as far as I got before deciding not to use Outlook.com for contacts. Could be others but I didn't use it long enough to find out. I am currently syncing contacts manually between devices because I didn't like the reduced functionality of Outlook.com.
Does the new system eliminate these issues?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

1. Fixed. The contact lists created in outlook.com sync down as contact groups, not as categories. The categories sync to the server and to other outlook's but don't show online.
2. I didn't check, but it should be fixed. Any problem would be due to fields not matching with the phone (an android problem) as it's exchange on the backend now.
3. You mean contact groups or something else? Contact groups sync now and can be used to send email.
4. Categories are not visible in Outlook.com

This a screenshot of my mailbox - AAA Test is a contact group. When i set up , named so it would be at the top, i had the Test group selected. Ooops. I didn't do a test send, but Exchange supports nested groups so it should work. The list (outlook.com calls it lists, not groups) can be created from either the New button or the Lists button. The new button uses the Office 365 method - a form opens, you type names, they come up in autocomplete and you click to add to the list.

 

[astro46]

Thank you, Diane. I will try dragging a few contacts (or whatever I need to do to get them to Outlook.com) and a contact group ("contact" in OL13 that holds a list of email addresses, so that I can send to the whole group in one email) and try it out.

btw: the field mapping issue had to do with my Windows Phone 8.1 (not Android) and the people hub. Some phone numbers wouldn't sync because the fields didn't exist on the People Hub.
eg: I put a 2nd mobile number in "Other" on OL13, because there is no "Mobile 2". the People Hub, does not have "other" field, but does have "mobile2". And no notes field in People Hub.

Perhaps Windows Phone 10 will be more complete.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

The people hub is history or soon will be.

On the field sync: create a fake contact on the phone and fill in all fields. Use those fields to figure out which ones work in all applications.