Issue with where Outlook saves new contacts

[tswatek]

In Outlook 2016, I have multiple email accts: 2 that use MS Exchange (2 separate employers' emails), and several others using POP3 (1 Yahoo, 2 gmail, and 1 other).

I use iCloud for syncing contacts across my PC, laptop, iPhone, and iPad.

The problem I'm having is that all new contacts - created on any of my 4 devices - is saved to my Exchange acct rather than my iCloud contacts acct (see image).

For clarity, I like all my contacts stored in "Contacts - iCloud", but all new contacts saved on any of my 4 devices are all saved to one of my Exchange accts for my work email address. I don't know why - it's just where new contacts show up when they're saved.

My issue with that is that my employer monitors my Exchange acct and I don't want them seeing my contacts, many of which are not work-related. All my devices are my own and not company-issued or owned.

The work-around I've been trying to use is:

1. Save the contact, which I know will be saved to the one Exchange contacts location.
2. Manually move the new contact from the Exchange contacts location to the iCloud contacts location.
3. Hit the Outlook iCloud refresh button that pushes out a sync.

It would be so much nicer if all new contacts - saved on any device - were automatically saved to the iCloud contacts location. Can I change to this? Is it a setting?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Outlook should save new contacts to the account you are viewing when you create it. You can use the move to folder command as you save the contact so you don't need to close it then find and move it.

Depending on your method to create new contacts, a macro that saves contacts to icloud might be helpful.

Not tested so i might have forgotten something... but this should work. Add it as a button to the ribbon and when you want to create a contact, click the button to get a new form.

(Just tested it - it works.)

Public Sub CreateContactiCloud()

Dim objContact As Outlook.ContactItem
Set contactFolder = GetFolderPath("icloud\contacts")
Set objContact = contactFolder.Items.Add(olcontactItem)
objContact.Display

End Sub

Function GetFolderPath(ByVal FolderPath As String) As Outlook.Folder
    Dim oFolder As Outlook.Folder
    Dim FoldersArray As Variant
    Dim i As Integer
       
    On Error GoTo GetFolderPath_Error
    If Left(FolderPath, 2) = "\\" Then
        FolderPath = Right(FolderPath, Len(FolderPath) - 2)
    End If
    'Convert folderpath to array
    FoldersArray = Split(FolderPath, "\")
    Set oFolder = Application.Session.Folders.item(FoldersArray(0))
    If Not oFolder Is Nothing Then
        For i = 1 To UBound(FoldersArray, 1)
            Dim SubFolders As Outlook.Folders
            Set SubFolders = oFolder.Folders
            Set oFolder = SubFolders.item(FoldersArray(i))
            If oFolder Is Nothing Then
                Set GetFolderPath = Nothing
            End If
        Next
    End If
    'Return the oFolder
    Set GetFolderPath = oFolder
    Exit Function
       
GetFolderPath_Error:
    Set GetFolderPath = Nothing
    Exit Function
End Function

 

[Diane Poremsky]

BTW, there is a video tutorial on using Move to Folder command at icloud contacts

 

[Diane Poremsky]

BTW, i also have a macro at Save appointments to a non-default Outlook calendar folder that will watch the default contacts folder and move contacts that are dropped into it. This will only work for you if you never want to save contacts in the default mailbox. (That macro uses the same function as the macro i posted above - the macros can share it.)