Could someone tell me how I can synchronize my exchange/outlook contacts with my  windows live contacts. With Windows Live on Windows Phone you can download them ones. With the outlook plugin for Live you get a second contact list....how to?

 This is one of the problems of Microsoft buiulding things that don't work with each other....why make another service (myphone) to synchronize contacts agenda etc on while there is already such service in Windows Live? Don't get it...and they don't either I think....but who can help me with this problem?

Welcome, Rob! If you have Exchange/Outlook contacts on  your phone, you should have been given the option to "Merge" your Live contacts when you first set up Windows Live on the phone. Have you set up your Live account yet? If so, and you didn't merge, you'll need to sign out of Live but going to options and choosing 'Switch Live ID," then signing back in again and choosing to sync your contacts.

You're right about My Phone duplicating some of the functionality of both Live and Outlook. However, in our experience for people who already use Live and Outlook to manage already cloud-based syncing, NOT using My Phone is the way to go. My Phone was really designed for people with information on their phone that's not already backed up in the cloud - both to allow them to backup their own info for free, and to allow them to switch phones quickly if they get a new one or lose their phone.

 Bill,

This function merges my contacts one time but doesn't synchronises them. When i add a contact to my phone it doesn't upload to my windows live contacts.

Regards,

 Rob van Triet

Ah, I understand.

We have another recent thread that may concern the same issue. Have you seen this thread? Not sure if the symptoms there are the same as yours, but I believe Live, Outlook, and the Connector for Outlook are involved, with the problem being contact sync.

I'm going to try some testing here and see what I can learn...

I'm not sure you can sync your Live Contacts with Exchange.  Rather than this being one of those times where MS builds things that don't work with each other because one department doesn't know what the other is doing, I suspect this is one of those times where MS intentionally kept them separate.

Syncing gets messy if you have more than one "master" source of data.  For server-based data, like Exchange or Live, the server is the "master" dataset.  To sync from Live to Exchange and vice versa, they'd have to connect to each other and sync server to server.  If they were allowed to sync to each other through your mobile, or through the desktop via the Outlook Connector, the chances that duplicates would pile up would be pretty high- say you create a new contact on your mobile, and it syncs to both the Exchange server and to Live.  Now your desktop connected to both services would see two new contacts- one that magically appeared on the Exchange server, and one that appeared in Live, both of which would sync to the PC.  Then Exchange and Live would each see a new contact- the one on the PC from the other service that would then sync back to the opposing servers.  Now the desktop and each server would have a duplicate, and send the dupes back to your phone! 

The only way to ensure the data stays "clean" would be a direct "cloud" sync between Live and and Exchange server itself.  (Which, frankly, would be a nice feature!)   

I think MS never considered the possibility that anyone would need or want to sync data between Live and Exchange- almost without exception, the Exchange user will have/use Outlook, and would then access Live mail in Outlook via the Outlook Connector, rather than use Live directly, and therefore wouldn't need access to (or use) Live Contacts.  If at a computer other than their own, they'd access their PIM data via OWA (Outlook Web Access) rather than Live.

The only "solution" I can see for you would be to periodically export your Exchange contacts (via Outlook on your PC) to Live using the Live portal.  Perhaps a third party application like Syncr would help simplify the process to a single click or two.

Rob, after trying various scenarios with Outlook Connector and my own Exchange and Live accounts, I'm mostly in agreement with Todd's comment - this setup seems like it would keep everything in sync across all devices and servers, but by design I don't think it does.

Some things I noticed:

You can add a contact to your phone and have it sync to Live, as long as you're in the Contacts application, and choose to create a new Live contact. You should see the option to create an Outlook contact, Windows Live contact, SIM contact, etc., when you hit New from the main Contacts page.

However, if you create a new Outlook contact on your phone, it will not sync to Live. 

The situation is the same on  your desktop: Create a contact in Live on the Web, and it will appear on your phone, but not in Outlook.  Create a contact in Outlook on  your desktop, and it will appear in  your phone, but not in Live.

Todd, please chime in if I've got it wrong... And thanks for the help!

 Wait a sec.

 If I export my outlook contacts to a csv file, delete them from outlook, import the csv into windows live, sync my phone with windows live doesn't this sync them to exchange? and back?

Rob van Triet:

 Wait a sec.

 If I export my outlook contacts to a csv file, delete them from outlook, import the csv into windows live, sync my phone with windows live doesn't this sync them to exchange? and back?

No, not as I understand it, because they'd be "Live" contacts, not "Outlook" contacts.

Windows phones essentially keep up to three separate sets of Contacts- "Outlook" contacts that sync to Outlook (via Activesync/WMDC,) Exchange, or both, "Live" that sync to Live, and "SIM" that don't sync and are stored on the phone's SIM Card (on GSM phones, anyway.)

For the user's convenience, the different sets of contacts are all displayed together on the device in a single master contacts list, but each only syncs with its own "kind." This is also why you're prompted, when creating a new contact, which type of Contact it will be- so the device knows what to sync it to.

A practical use of this "limitation" is to use Exchange and Live to keep your home and work lives separate. You can use Exchange for your work contacts, and Live for your personal/home contacts. While your phone will have all of your contacts, your work PC won't be cluttered with your kids' soccer teammate's parents' contact info, and your home PC won't have every sales rep and vendor you keep in Exchange.

Bill Fisher:

Todd, please chime in if I've got it wrong... And thanks for the help!

My pleasure. I think you pretty much summed it up, Bill.

Part of the confusion, I think, comes from the checkbox in the Live software that offers to "merge duplicates." AFAIK, it doesn't really "merge" them, as much as it "hides" the Live version of the duplicates- the separate "Live" and "Outlook" version of the contacts are still on the phone, but only one (the Outlook) version is displayed, so you don't see two of every "merged" contact.

Aha

That's even better......so what I'm gonna do is filter personal and business contatcs out of my exchange accounts...export the personal contacts to a csv delelete them from outlook....and import them in live so I've got them all in my phone but seperated when I login my outlook.

 Nice functionality (-;

 Thx for all the help

If you have Outlook Live Connector installed, you can copy and paste contacts between your Outlook Contacts and your Live Contacts.

 Laura,

 I've the connector installed but when I copy paste it just won't upload my contacts no mather how long I wait.

 And to what CSV file must I export the contacts so I can upload them to live...? DOS and Windows format both don't work.

When I have copied and pasted contacts from my Outlook contacts to my live contacts in OUTLOOK, it has taken between 1 and 12 hours to update those Live Contacts.

Do you have just the one Live Account?

I'm not sure on the csv file format as I have never done it this way.

 That's not really fast

 Anybody on the CSV question...guess this goes faster.

Rob, I've never tried the CSV method, but this *should* just be a simple comma-separated values file that can be opened in Excel. it sounds like you've already been able to expert these from Outlook through the "Import and Export..." dialog on the File menu.

There are some decent instructions posted at Microsoft.com covering exporting to and from Outlook/Live. I copied them below after the links.

Export contacts from Outlook to Windows Live Hotmail.

Import contacts from Windows Live Hotmail to Outlook.

To EXPORT from Outlook to Live Hotmail

1. Log on to your Windows Live Hotmail account.
2. In the left pane, click Contacts.
3. On the Windows Live Hotmail toolbar, click Options, then click Import Contacts.
4. Under Option 1: Fast import for Outlook or Outlook Express, click Download and run Contacts Importer.
5. When prompted to run or save the file, click Run.

    Note   If you use a Web browser other than Windows Internet Explorer, you must save the Windows Live Contact Importer to your computer before you can run it.

6. When prompted to run the software, click Run.
7. In the Windows Live Contact Importer wizard, click Next.
8. Type your Windows Live ID (your e-mail address) and password, and then click Next.
9. Select the check boxes for address books you want to import, and then click Next.
10. All contacts are selected by default. Clear the check boxes for any contacts that you do not want to import, and then click Next.

     Note   A maximum of 1,000 contacts can be imported at one time.

    

     Tip   Click Uncheck All to clear all check boxes. You can then select the contacts that you want to import. This is useful if you have a large number of contacts in Outlook but need to import only a small number of those into Windows Live Hotmail.

11. The number of contacts to import to Windows Live Hotmail is displayed. Click Next.
12. Click Close.

To IMPORT from Live Hotmail into outlook

1. Log on to your Windows Live Hotmail account.
2. In the left pane, click Contacts.
3. On the Windows Live Hotmail toolbar, click Options, then click Export Contacts.
4. Under Export contacts, click Export contacts.
5. When prompted to open or save the file, click Save.
6. Select a location to save the file, and then click Save.

    Note   The default file name is WLMContacts.csv.

7. In Outlook, on the File menu, click Import and Export.
8. Click Import from another program or file, and then click Next.
9. Click Comma Separated Values (DOS), and then click Next.
10. Click Browse to locate the file you saved in step 6, select the file, and then click OK.
11. Under Options, choose an option for how to process duplicate contacts, and then click Next.
12. Click the Outlook contacts folder where you want the imported contacts to be saved, and then click Next.

     Note   Many people only have one Contacts folder. However, if you have multiple contacts folders, you should pick the folder where you want your Windows Live Hotmail contacts to be saved.

13. Click Finish.