Specifics:
*Outlook 2016 32-bit from Office 365 Personal, latest version as of 8/20/16
*Exchange Server (ActiveSync) (version unknown but is hosted by Microsoft)
*800 contact records, cleaned in advance in an Outlook 2016 .pst file
Added contacts via dragging records from an Outlook 2016 .pst file (and later tried importing a .csv file, but the result was the same) to the Contacts folder of the default data file for Outlook 2016, which is a Microsoft account, set up using Exchange settings, and is the registered account for the Office 365 Personal subscription. In that arrangement, all data held in the folders of the default Microsoft account is stored in Exchange online. Initially, the import looked fine as I viewed the local data while Outlook uploaded the data to the Exchange server. As soon as the data upload ended, the view switched to the data held by the Exchange server, which was corrupted in that the Company field data was omitted from about 30% of the records, or about 50% or more of records that even had data in the Company field. Since the majority of records from which the company field data was omitted did not have a person's name, either, the File As field data was also blank in those affected records. All other data in the affected records remained intact, but was not useful in the records missing both Company and File As data since the records could not be identified for the most part.
However, the Company field data was on the MS Exchange cloud server, but only in the PersonMetadata folder (and with data problems). When I searched in Outlook Contacts for a company name known to have been omitted during the upload, the contact with much of the original data, including the original company field data, was found in Exchange server's PersonMetadata folder, and was displayed in Outlook Contacts both in Recent Results and on the server views. Nevertheless, when not using the search function in Outlook, the company name wouldn't appear in the contact record in Outlook 2016 that had originally contained the company field data (nor on my iDevices when using only the Contacts group). If I switched to PersonMetadata group on iDevices, the contact was found by Company name, and displayed it, but the upload created more than a thousand additional records in that group that contain only pieces of other records. In other words, the Exchange server polluted that group/folder with a lot of garbage. Furthermore, even the records that appeared complete in the PersonMetadata folder were modified in such a way that I couldn't rely upon them. See below.
I manually updated the GAL in Outlook 2016, but it didn't make a difference.
The correct company field data was in the PersonMetadata group on the Exchange server (I performed an advanced search and set, from All Contacts Fields, In Folder = PersonMetadata, and Message Class = IPM.Contact to see the PersonMetadata records on the Exchange server), but other data in those records was unreliable. Those records sometimes contained old data and even reconstructed data (which was often wrong), and as a result, a simple replacement of the Contacts records with the PersonMetadata records wouldn't suffice.
My solution was to add tagged PersonMetadata records to the Contacts records and, one by one, determine which record was more accurate. Often, missing Company or File As data made it obvious, but the process was ridiculously time consuming.
Prior to pursuing my solution above, I spent a fair amount of time trying to identify a pattern in the records containing dropped company field data, but had no success. I was unable to relate it to any of the other field data contained in Outlook. It appeared random. My hope was that by identifying a pattern or cause, I could avoid the "if all else fails" solution, but in the end, didn't avoid it.
All other functions of Outlook 2016 and the calendar on Exchange server (ActiveSync) worked normally prior to, during and after the corrupted upload of contact records.
Has anyone else experienced data from some fields of some records being dropped when uploaded from Outlook on a PC to Exchange/ActiveSync, and if so, do you know why? My Google searches have identified many others encountering the same problem, although they often describe the symptoms, such as contacts appear as "No Name" on iPhone or iPad.
*Outlook 2016 32-bit from Office 365 Personal, latest version as of 8/20/16
*Exchange Server (ActiveSync) (version unknown but is hosted by Microsoft)
*800 contact records, cleaned in advance in an Outlook 2016 .pst file
Added contacts via dragging records from an Outlook 2016 .pst file (and later tried importing a .csv file, but the result was the same) to the Contacts folder of the default data file for Outlook 2016, which is a Microsoft account, set up using Exchange settings, and is the registered account for the Office 365 Personal subscription. In that arrangement, all data held in the folders of the default Microsoft account is stored in Exchange online. Initially, the import looked fine as I viewed the local data while Outlook uploaded the data to the Exchange server. As soon as the data upload ended, the view switched to the data held by the Exchange server, which was corrupted in that the Company field data was omitted from about 30% of the records, or about 50% or more of records that even had data in the Company field. Since the majority of records from which the company field data was omitted did not have a person's name, either, the File As field data was also blank in those affected records. All other data in the affected records remained intact, but was not useful in the records missing both Company and File As data since the records could not be identified for the most part.
However, the Company field data was on the MS Exchange cloud server, but only in the PersonMetadata folder (and with data problems). When I searched in Outlook Contacts for a company name known to have been omitted during the upload, the contact with much of the original data, including the original company field data, was found in Exchange server's PersonMetadata folder, and was displayed in Outlook Contacts both in Recent Results and on the server views. Nevertheless, when not using the search function in Outlook, the company name wouldn't appear in the contact record in Outlook 2016 that had originally contained the company field data (nor on my iDevices when using only the Contacts group). If I switched to PersonMetadata group on iDevices, the contact was found by Company name, and displayed it, but the upload created more than a thousand additional records in that group that contain only pieces of other records. In other words, the Exchange server polluted that group/folder with a lot of garbage. Furthermore, even the records that appeared complete in the PersonMetadata folder were modified in such a way that I couldn't rely upon them. See below.
I manually updated the GAL in Outlook 2016, but it didn't make a difference.
The correct company field data was in the PersonMetadata group on the Exchange server (I performed an advanced search and set, from All Contacts Fields, In Folder = PersonMetadata, and Message Class = IPM.Contact to see the PersonMetadata records on the Exchange server), but other data in those records was unreliable. Those records sometimes contained old data and even reconstructed data (which was often wrong), and as a result, a simple replacement of the Contacts records with the PersonMetadata records wouldn't suffice.
My solution was to add tagged PersonMetadata records to the Contacts records and, one by one, determine which record was more accurate. Often, missing Company or File As data made it obvious, but the process was ridiculously time consuming.
Prior to pursuing my solution above, I spent a fair amount of time trying to identify a pattern in the records containing dropped company field data, but had no success. I was unable to relate it to any of the other field data contained in Outlook. It appeared random. My hope was that by identifying a pattern or cause, I could avoid the "if all else fails" solution, but in the end, didn't avoid it.
All other functions of Outlook 2016 and the calendar on Exchange server (ActiveSync) worked normally prior to, during and after the corrupted upload of contact records.
Has anyone else experienced data from some fields of some records being dropped when uploaded from Outlook on a PC to Exchange/ActiveSync, and if so, do you know why? My Google searches have identified many others encountering the same problem, although they often describe the symptoms, such as contacts appear as "No Name" on iPhone or iPad.
