Outlook.com birthdays show up 1 day late on iPhone contacts list

[Stephen1]

Many birthday dates show up 1 day late on my iPhone 8 (iOS11) default contacts list, although they show up correctly on the iPhone calendar.

For example a birthday correctly entered in Outlook.com for March 8 1995 would display in iPhone contacts as March 9 1995, but would appear correctly on March 8 1995 in iPhone calendar.

This problem exists for many but not all contacts.

I am based in Europe if that matters (and my time zone is correct).

Any idea how to fix it?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

would display in iPhone contacts as March 9 1995, but would appear correctly on March 8 1995 in iPhone calendar.

Really? I can see reminders being goofy, but the only way the dates would be wrong on contacts is if there is a TZ assigned to the date, which their shouldn't be. (A TZ will be assigned to all day events, which may make them appear to span 2 days).

Do you remember anything about where/when you created the contacts or added the birth date? This might help us figure out what is going on. For example, if all correct ones were edited in outlook, or are new and old ones created on the phone or are old we could probably blame the time zone (but its still weird that it affects the date on the contact.)

 

[Stephen1]

Before answering your questions, I now have a bigger Birthday Calendar issue.

In an attempt to fix this issue, I went into the Outlook.com calendar and selected Options > Birthday Calendar and selected Turn Off The Birthday Calendar and Saved this.

I then selected Turn On The Birthday Calendar and Saved this.

Unfortunately, this has caused all my birthday entries to disappear on the Birthday Calendar.

There is a tab both at the side and top of the Outlook.com Calendar page that implies Birthday Calendar is turned on, but there are no entries.

I did Calendar Settings > Refresh but there was no change.

In Outlook 2016 the Birthday Calendar is switched on but again there are no entries.

Any idea how I can get the Birthday Calendar to reappear? The birth date data remains in the People section of Outlook.com.

Back to your questions re my original question.

I can assure you the problem exists, and there is an identical issue with Outlook.com Birthdays with my wife’s iPhone 7 (iOS11).

Essentially all (99%+) Contacts and Birthday Info was entered directly into Outlook.com People section (on the web), on the assumption this was the “Master Copy”.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Unfortunately, this has caused all my birthday entries to disappear on the Birthday Calendar.

That should be temporary, until Exchange takes the time to read the contacts and rebuild the Birthday events.

I can assure you the problem exists, and there is an identical issue with Outlook.com Birthdays with my wife’s iPhone 7 (iOS11).

I don't doubt it exists - just trying to figure out where the wrong date is getting picked up. It's like the date is January 9 2018 in Pacific time, which is tomorrow in your time, at least for part of the day.

 

[Stephen1]

That should be temporary, until Exchange takes the time to read the contacts and rebuild the Birthday events.

Many thanks Diane.

Should I expect Exchange to rebuild the Birthday events in the next 24 hours or so?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Should I expect Exchange to rebuild the Birthday events in the next 24 hours or so?

Yes, sometime within 24 hours, if not sooner.

 

[Stephen1]

Yes, sometime within 24 hours, if not sooner.

It’s been about 48 hours since I turned my Birthday Calendar back on, but there are still no entries in the Birthday Calendar.

The Birthday Calendar is present in both Outlook.com and Outlook 2016, but is blank.

All the underlying birth date data exists in the People section of Outlook.com.

Any ideas how I can get the birthday entries to reappear?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

As an FYI, there is/was a bug in the birthday calendar - the person who told me about it doesn't have the details though, so we don't know if its your bug or something else. When i hear more, i will let you know.

 

[Stephen1]

Thanks, Diane.

Do you know whether the recently announced Outlook.com Calendar beta is just a visual redesign, or is it a more comprehensive overall that could potentially fix some issues/bugs?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

i believe that is basically visual redesign. The person who is working the bug said the issue is named "Items from contacts not showing up in birthday calendar" - so that applies to the second problem for sure.

 

[Jimmy]

I have just encountered the same problem. My Outlook contact birthdays have just moved forward one day on my iPhone contact list. The iCloud calendar shows them correctly

 

[Jimmy]

Could it be related to Winter time clock change?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Yes, it is related to the time change. Are both devices using the same time zone and DST settings?

 

[Scampo]

I came upon this thread since I also have the Outlook birthday date error. I struggle to believe that Microsoft continue to ignore the error. It's years old and it seems insoluble. No amount of fiddling with Outlook will solve it. It is a coding error somewhere deep within Outlook that must be un-fixable.

It's made me switch to Gmail - a faultless calendar; but I'm too tied into Office 365 to switch for long: i always come back to Outlook and put up with the error. Even my own birthday and anniversary regularly show a day or two late. I've got round the problem by manually adding into the "Notes" section the dates, and correcting Outlook as and when I notice it is wrong.

I struggle to believe Microsoft can ignore such a basic error. But I've felt that way many times about that particular, and sometimes deeply frustrating, company over many coding issues over the years. A recent Windows 10 update knocked out my sound card and DVD player, for example,

 

[Diane Poremsky]

It's not all microsoft's fault. It has to do how each platform handles birthdays and the way iphone syncs.

 

[cbieg]

I am also having this problem and it is driving me crazy because if I share my iPhone contact with someone - the birthday is shared incorrectly. The Outlook iphone App shows the birthday correct in the contact (people) and calendar sections, Outlook on the PC shows the birthday correct in the contacts and the calendar sections, Outlook on the Web shows the birthday correct in the contacts and the calendar section. The iPhone calendar shows the birthday correct. However, the iPhone contact shows all of my birthdays +1 day (an actual birthday of July 4 shows up as July 5 in the iPhone contact). All of my time zones are correct (on the web, on the PC and on the iPhone). There are no incorrect settings that I can see on the iPhone calendar or iPhone contacts. I'm only using one email/contact/calendar feed and that is Outlook. My version of Outlook is Microsoft Outlook for Office 365 MSO 16.0.11328.20156 32 bit. I've tried deleting & re-entering the birthdays and that does not work. I did not have this issue when I was using enterprise Outlook used by corporations. My issues started when I retired and started using the personal/home version of Outlook. It is obvious that the syncing between Outlook and my iPhone calendar is working on the birthdays because they are all correct on the iPhone calendar. But they are all incorrect on my iPhone contacts. Any help would be appreciated to fix this.

 

[cbieg]

FYI...I've deleted & added the Outlook account on my iPhone several times. I've tried adding it as both an Exchange account and an Outlook.com account (never at the same time). This doesn't seem to make a difference either...all birthdays and anniversaries are +1 day in the iPhone contacts.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

The birthday problem is a long standing issue - I don't know if they will even get it fixed. It has to do with how they (both apple & ms) handle all day events. (MDS probably gets most of the blame for this - but its also in how the sync handles it. A new sync process is coming which might fix this.)

 

[D.Moore]

A new sync process is coming which might fix this.)

May I ask if you have any idea, approximately, when this new sync process could be expected ?

 

[Diane Poremsky]

"Soon" - I'm expecting it by the end of june, but maybe a little longer.