Why doesn’t the address book I have in Outlook on my computer come up in Outlook on my mobile?

Do you use Microsoft Outlook on your computer for emails and calendar? Do you have a large address book which you'd like to view on your smartphone or tablet? Do you want the address book to stay synchronised between all your devices?

The services outlined on this page are aimed at the self-employed, the solopreneurs and micro-businesses who have email setup with their own domain (eg. info@yourdomain.co.uk).

If you have your own domain with a company such as IONOS, 123-Reg, Fasthosts or GoDaddy then it is possible that you have the basic email service where you setup the email account in Outlook using IMAP or POP3 account settings provided by your webhosting company. For example, mail.ionos.co.uk or imap.fasthosts.co.uk. Whilst you find the emails are sync’d across your computer and iPhone and other devices you’ve noticed the calendar isn’t.

Why contacts / address book don’t sync

Contacts / address books don’t sync simply because they are not part of the email protocols. Email comprises three protocols – IMAP, POP3 and SMTP. The first two deal with receiving emails and SMTP deals with sending emails. None of these protocols handle calendars.

Although you are using Outlook for your emails without any problems and you also have access to contacts in Outlook the address book does not have any integration with the email account – they are totally separate. This is why you can’t see your contacts on your phone, even if you install the Outlook app on your phone. You can setup your emails on your devices without any problems and things stay in sync but when you create a new contact in Outlook it stays on that computer and doesn’t go anywhere else.

The Solution on how to have synchronised contacts / address book across all your devices

Microsoft 365 Exchange enables you to keep your emails, contacts and calendar synchronised between all your computers, iPads, phones and any other devices you use. There are several Microsoft 365 packages for businesses and we will go through all of them so you can make an informed decision on what’s best for you.

Microsoft 365 have their own protocols for email and have built in integrated calendar as well. The calendar events are linked to the email account.

At present you have a domain with a webhosting company who your emails go through. You might also have a website setup as well. We want to move the emails away from your webhosting company and have them routed through Microsoft 365 so you can get integrated calendar.

You still keep your domain hosted with your existing web hosting company. If you have a website then this also stays exactly where it is now. All that changes are some records known as DNS records. Instead of your web hosting company handling your emails you change DNS records so Microsoft 365 handle your emails through their servers.

Office 365 gives you fully synchronised email, calendar and contacts across all your devices

Which Microsoft 365 Product do I need to buy

You already have Outlook (version 2013 or later) installed on your computer

On this basis you just need Microsoft 365 Business Basic which costs £3.80+VAT per month.

You don't have Outlook or you have an old version (2010 or earlier)

If you are working for yourself and have other members of your family who have their own computers I would recommend you buy Microsoft 365 Family (£79.99 per year) and Microsoft 365 Business Basic. Microsoft 365 Family enables you to install Microsoft Office on up to 6 computers and share it with your family so they each have their own 1TB OneDrive cloud storage space. You then just purchase Microsoft 365 Business Basic for your emails.

If you have other people working for you

If there are a few of you involved in the business then you might want to buy Microsoft 365 business Standard. This will give you all the applications and the email for £9.40+VAT per month.

Other benefits of Microsoft 365 Emails

Reliable email delivery
Spam protection / filters
50GB mailbox – loads of storage for thousands of emails.

Once all the emails have been setup and migrated you can carry on as you left off. You can send and receive emails to all your existing customers as if nothing has changed. You can also use the calendar just like before. However, the biggest difference will be your ability to install the Outlook app on your mobile and tablet or any other computers and see that everything including the calendar is now synchronised.

Add an entry to the calendar on your phone and then see it immediately on your laptop, and vice versa.