System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.
Contacts on Windows Phone are synced from various accounts added to your phone. Services that sync contacts to your phone include Outlook (through Exchange only), Facebook, Windows Live, and Google. All contacts are stored in the People Hub in a single aggregate view.
Click the image below, and follow the steps to sync your contacts to your phone.
Online Solution Wizard A step-by-step solution is available to resolve this problem.
Note If you use Outlook without Exchange, you can't sync your calendar directly from Outlook to Windows Phone. You can sync your Outlook calendar to Windows Live, which will then sync that calendar to your phone as soon as you add your Windows Live account to your phone.
Sync your Outlook calendar to Windows Live, and then your phone
1. Check your mail server type
Note Outlook 2003 users should follow the instructions for Outlook 2007.
First, check whether or not you're using Outlook with Microsoft Exchange (if you already know, skip this step and go to Step 2: Add your account to your phone):
Note Contacts stored in Exchange will automatically sync to Windows Phone as soon as you add your account to your phone.
From the Start screen, flick left to the App list, and then tap Settings
Collapse this imageExpand this image
.
Tap Email+accounts.
Tap Add an account, and then tap Outlook.
Enter your email address and password information, and then tap Sign in.
Your Outlook contacts should automatically sync to your phone. This may take some time.
Go back to the Start screen and see if your Outlook contacts appear in the People Hub. (You do not need to follow Step 3, Sync your contacts.)
3. Sync your contacts
This step will transfer your contacts from Outlook to Windows Live, where you will be able to sync them onto your phone. There are two methods for doing this: one will automatically keep your Outlook contacts synced with your phone, the other will import your contacts when you manually perform the process.
Note Outlook contact photos stored locally (on your computer) will not sync to Windows Live using the following methods. You will have to add your contact pictures manually on Windows Phone, because Windows Live doesn't allow for assigning of pictures to contacts outside "network contacts" (Messenger). This may not be an issue if you have that same contact as a Facebook friend and have linked the contact cards on the phone. The Facebook profile picture would then become the contact photo.
Solution 1: (Recommended) Use Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector to move your Outlook contacts to Windows Live
On the next page, click the Download button if you are running a 32-bit version of Office. If you're running a 64-bit version of Office, click the link at the bottom of the page. (Direct links: 32-bit
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d9662d20-ad27-45a6-9184-f906dd63ddaa)
/ 64-bit
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bd0bcb57-d408-4d4a-8f1e-d737d8c27098)
) Not sure which version of Office you're running? Start Office and click File, then Help. This information will be listed next to the version number.
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Install the Outlook Hotmail Connector.
Go to the next section, Copy contacts to Windows Live.
Copy contacts to Windows Live Once you have the Connector installed, follow the directions below according to the version of Outlook you're using:
Outlook 2010
Click here to show/hide solution.
Open Outlook 2010 on your computer.
Click File, then click Add Account.
Select Manually configure server settings or additional server types and click Next.
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Select Other, choose Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector and click Next. Enter your name, your Windows Live email address and password. Click OK to complete the setup.
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Click Contacts. You should notice a new Contacts section has appeared for your Hotmail account.
Select your Outlook contacts. Click and drag or copy and paste the contacts to the new Contacts section in your email account.
Collapse this imageExpand this image
On your phone, swipe left and tap Settings, tap Email & Accounts, then tap-and-hold Windows Live and tap sync. This may take a few moments. (If you haven't already added your email account to yoru Windows Phone, go back to Step 2, Add your account to your phone.)
Outlook 2007
Click here to show/hide solution.
Open Outlook 2007 on your computer.
Click Outlook Connector, then click Add a New Account.
Collapse this imageExpand this image
Enter the email and password for your Windows Live account and then click OK.
Close Outlook.
Open Outlook again on your computer.
Click Contacts. A new Contacts section is added for your Windows Live account.
Select your Outlook contacts. Then click and drag or copy and paste your Outlook Contacts to the new contacts section in your Windows Live account.
Collapse this imageExpand this image
On your phone, swipe left and tap Settings, tap Email & Accounts, then tap-and-hold Windows Live and tap sync. This may take a few moments. (If you haven't already added your email account to your Windows Phone, go back to Step 2, Add your account to your phone.)
Solution 2: (Manual) Import your Outlook contacts into Windows Live
Browse to the CSV file that you exported from Outlook.
Click Import contacts.
On your phone, swipe left and tap Settings
Collapse this imageExpand this image
, tap Email+accounts, then tap-and-hold Windows Live and tap sync. This may take a few moments. (If you haven't already added your email account to your Windows Phone, go back to Step 2, Add your account to your phone.)
Important This process is intended to move your Outlook contacts to Windows Live. Windows Phone syncs with the Windows Live service. What this means is that any subsequent changes that you make to your Outlook contacts will not sync with Windows Live until you run this process again. Similarly, any changes on Windows Phone will update the Windows Live contacts and vice-versa, but those changes will not be reflected in the locally-stored Outlook contacts. To view and manage your Windows Live contacts in Outlook, you will have to install the
Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector.
Notes
Windows Live limits the upload file size to 500 KB for CSV files. If your CSV file is larger than 500 KB, the file will not upload and you will receive the following error:
The file you want to import is too large. Please delete some of the contacts and then try importing the file again.
To resolve this issue, open the CSV file in Excel and split it into several files. You can then upload each file to Windows Live as long as the total file size doesn't exceed the 500 KB limit.
Windows Live limits the number of contacts an account can have, and you may receive the following error:
You can only have a total of <x> contacts. Please delete some contacts and try importing the file again.
Back to the top
