iPhone (iOS) and Outlook.com synchronization moves contact birthday date forward +1 day

03/27/18 - Apple has released iOS 12.2 that fixes the sync issue with iOS devices for Outlook.com Contacts. (FIX: Unsync / Re-sync contacts)

What's fixed:

• iOS Contacts (Synced from Outlook.com)

What's still broken:

• iOS Contacts (Synced from Exchange) per some users on microsoft community forums
• OSX Contacts (Synced from Exchange and Outlook.com)

Additional Notes: 

Some users above state that 12.2 has not fixed their Outlook.com contact and that some contacts still have the incorrect date. 

This might be due to the fact that a contact which was displaying the incorrect date on iOS for example, was edited and saved from an iOS device that altered the date on Outlook.com to the incorrect date. 

I had a contact who's birthday is 10/23, but recently forgot I updated his home address, so when it saved back to Outlook.com, it saved the new address and the incorrect 10/24 birthday. 

Validation Steps Taken: 

• Unsync Outlook.com contacts / Resync Outlook.com contacts ✔
• Create a contact in Outlook.com > It crosses over to iOS 12.2 with no issues (DOB & Anniversary date) ✔
• Modify birthday in Outlook.com > It crosses over to iOS 12.2 with no issues (DOB & Anniversary dates) ✔
• Create a contact in iOS 12.2 > It crosses over to Outlook.com with no issues (DOB & Anniversary dates) ✔
• Modify birthday in iOS 12.2 > It crosses over to Outlook.com with no issues (DOB & Anniversary dates) ✔

- If I create a contact on Outlook.com with a birthday

Person A 1/1/2001

Person B 2/2/2002

Person C 3/3/2003

Person D 4/4/2004

Person E 5/5/2005

- The birthday calendar in Outlook.com is populated correctly.

When i add the Outlook account to OSX or IOS as Outlook.com accounts all the birthdays shift by +1 day the moment they are imported on the iPhone or OSX. However Outlook.com will stay the same. If there is a change to the contact on the iPhone or OSX, it will push back the new changes including the new +1 day.

If the change is made at Outlook.com (and the birthday is correct on Outlook.com) when the iphone syncs that contact, it will get the new changes and add the +1 to the birthday on Outlook.com.

- - - - 

This is easily reproducible in both IOS and OSX. 

Just tried. I also created contacts on a google account and noticed that OSX does not sync birthday from g-contacts without a birth year. But if they have a full year, they will sync correctly (no +1/-1).

Microsoft has reached out today to me stating their team is now in contact with Apple to try and resolve the issue. 

"We would like to inform you that we are working with Apple in the backend to get this fixed, but we do not have any ETA for the fix at this time.

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We have engaged the appropriate teams for further investigation and this will be considered for a future update of the product."

Happy that this issue is finally being addressed by both companies.

However "future update of the product" sounds a bit vague and inconclusive as to when we can expect this to be done, since this has been an issue since 2012. I will keep this thread up and update if I hear back from them. 

Hi @tderochette,

The last update is that MSFT was going to coordinate on a fix with Apple. However, I have received on response from Apple and from my trials this issue only seems to affect CONTACTS linked to iOS and OSX.

Sadly, this thread doesn't have enough "ME TOO" to even show up on Apple's radar or worth their time. Especially because it's a bug that is keeping us from using a service of a competitor with their own. I will try to update this thread once I confirm the fix is live (if I'm able to figure it out, since neither Microsoft or Apple will be reaching out to me or us.)

Sorry I don't have better news.

An Outlook.com engineer has confirmed that they are currently waiting for deployment of the fix for all affected users.

Unfortunately Apple and Microsoft have not commented on the issue publicly nor have informed me of a schedule delivery date to fix this issue.