If you use the Outlook app on your iPhone and have activated the option "Sync with local device contacts", it can happen that business email addresses are incorrectly marked as "private" in the iOS contact list.
Background
- Sync process: First, contacts (e.g. from any source via sync.blue®) are transferred to Exchange Online via Microsoft Graph API. However, Microsoft Graph API does not support a distinction between "private" and "business" email addresses.
- Outlook app: The Outlook app then synchronizes these contacts with the local iPhone contacts. Since the type information (private/business) is not provided by the Graph API, Exchange or your iPhone interprets the email address as “private” by default.
Important: This behavior is not caused by sync.blue® and cannot be changed there. It is a limitation within Microsoft (Graph API & Exchange) in connection with the Outlook app.
Possible solutions
- Integrate Exchange account directly
Integrate your Exchange account (e.g. Office 365) directly in the iOS settings under “Passwords & Accounts” (or “Mail Accounts”) instead of using the Outlook app for contact synchronization.- Advantage: The email address is then (in most cases) displayed without a type indication in the iOS contact app and is not marked as “private”.
- Working without local synchronization of the Outlook app
If you want to continue using the Outlook app but want to avoid the wrong type marking in the iOS contacts, you can deactivate local synchronization in the Outlook app under “Settings - Your account - Sync contacts” .- Note: Your contacts will then only be available in the Outlook app, but not in the iOS contact app.
Summary
The incorrect display as "private" instead of "business" is caused by a restriction of the Microsoft Graph API, which does not allow type assignment for email addresses. When synchronizing later in the iPhone contacts (via the Outlook app) this is automatically set to "private".
The only ways to get around this are:
- to set up the Exchange account directly on the iPhone,
- or to deactivate local synchronization via the Outlook app.
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