how to sync up apple contact book and exchange contacts

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Level 1

4 points

how to sync up apple contact book and exchange contacts

I have a bunch of contacts in my Apple Contact book but am using Outlook for Mac 2011 for email, contact management, and calendar. I have read that you have to sync your Apple contact book to your exchange account rather than directly to the Outlook for Mac 2011 programs so you don't create duplicates (contacts coming from the Apple address book AND the Exchange server). However, I can't find anything that tells me how to sync the Apple Contacts with my Exchange account. I figure at that point once synced, my exchange account will push the new contacts from the Apple Contact book back into Outlook for Mac 2011 making everything whole.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Posted on Jun 25, 2014 7:28 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 25, 2014 8:11 AM in response to jmorovich

Hi, actually 10.9 has native exchange support for Calander, Mail, notes, Contacts, & tasks. Within System Properties>Internet Accounts>Exchange go ahead and log in and activate the Exchange service you want. You will have the opportunity then to sync your contacts with your exchange server. The thing you are going to need to be aware of is that the custom fields in your AddressBook vCards won't be able to sync correctly to the boring Exchange Contacts. So do some testing before you drag the whole lot into Exchange. Good luck...

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Answer 2

jmorovich Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 25, 2014 9:48 AM in response to itsamacthing

itsamacthing,

Thanks for the quick response. I do have the exchange service added and am only bringing the contacts down from the exchange side into the Contacts portion (not syncing mail, calendar, etc). It has seemed to create two different "sections' in the Apple Contacts Address book (Please see screenshot). I was hoping to somehow merge/sync these two so I am always working out of one directory. When I create a contact in my Outlook for Mac 2011 it dumps it in the "Exchange" section and up to my Exchange server. However, when I create one on my iphone and sync the phone with this system via usb cable, it puts all new contacts created in the "On My Mac" section thus not moving it to my Exchange or Outlook for Mac 2011 causing new contacts to only sync with different sections based on where they were created.

(As a side note, I have to sync via the firewire cable due to having over 10,000 contacts. There was an issue with the previous release of IOS that caused massive problems with syncing over the air with that many contacts. I've never fully recovered and have not had the hard to do over the air syncing again, hence the tethered sync).

If there is anything I can do to get this rolled into one Address book that syncs from phone all the way through to Exchange server, I would appreciate any additional direction. I've also included a second screen shot to show the difference between the Exchange contacts total (10,660) and the All on my Mac contacts total (10,774). Ideally they would both say 10,774.

Thank you again.

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