Disappearing Contacts

[vernon271]

Hello All,

I have Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 5G (Verizon Wireless), running One UI 5.0 on top of Android version 13 and for past three weeks I have noticed that my Contacts would "disappear" meaning they are no longer on the device. For example, I would sync the device with Outlook 365 (installed locally on my laptop) and the Contacts, Calendar, Tasks and Memos would sync with the device. The information is not being synced with any cloud service; the information is stored locally on the device and on the laptop.

Then days later when I need to email a contact I would access the Contacts app ( I am using the native Contacts app that comes with the device) and not one single contact is present. All of them seems to have "disappeared." The Notes, Tasks and Memos are all there but not the Contacts.

Then I would do a one-way synced from Outlook to the device and the Contacts would sync to the device. Then days later when looking for a contact on the device they are no longer there.

Has anyone had this experience or heard of this happening?

Regards,

Vernon

 

[ocnbrze]

why not save your contacts to google? i never save it just to the phone or device. its always google. this way when i get a new device or sign in to another device all of my contact info gets syncd when i sign in to google.

 

[svim]

Assuming you mean 'Microsoft 365' and not 'Outlook 365' (doesn't exist), it's still matter where Microsoft's online servers are involved. Microsoft 365 is not equivalent to Microsoft Exchange, a service that can be managed and maintained locally. Or are you referring to 'Office 365', the old name Microsoft used before it changed it to Microsoft 365?
But whatever. Even when you're using Microsoft 365 'locally' on your laptop, it's still remotely tied to your online Microsoft 365 account. Your laptop is just a satellite storing and managing your account data, but all that gets synced online with Microsoft's servers. To do what you're stating, syncing to your own local server, you need to actually being managing your own MS Exchange server, something of a much more involved task. So it sounds like the Contact app on your S7 still needs to be set up to to sync with your Microsoft 365 account, or instead of the using the default Contacts app you might be better off installing and using Microsoft's Outlook app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.office.outlook&hl=en_US&gl=US&pli=1
The Outlook app is a more seamless way to sync with your Microsoft 365 email/contacts/calendar.

 

[vernon271]

I would prefer not to sync my contacts with the cloud; despite using the same sync process on other devices the issue is only happening on the Tab S7 and it makes no sense why this is happening.

 

[svim]

If you don't actually want to sync your contacts online on your Tab S7, just go into it's Setting menu and disable syncing for Contacts.
At that point it will be your responsibility to keep the Contacts app on your Tab S7 and your online Microsoft 365 account data in sync with each other -- each time you add new or edit existing contact entries in your Contacts app you need to use the Export feature and then import that file into your Microsoft 365 account, and do the same vice-versa.