We have an iPhone app that reads all the contacts of the native address book and may modify some off them. The iPhone address book usually synchronizes with some Google account or some Exchange server.
We noticed that in a few cases (really few) the contacts in Exchange server are duplicated after syncing with the iPhone. Let me list down the facts:
Setup:
- User’s Outlook contacts stored on Exchange 2010
- User’s iPhone (iOS8.1.3) synced with Exchange
- Our application synced with iPhone
Symptom:
- Contacts in outlook got duplicated after user used our app (which updates iPhone’s native contacts with extra data)
- Contacts in iPhone remain OK (i.e. Outlook now has double the amount of contacts that iPhone has)
- We have seen this happen for two users (out of hundreds)
Known issue:
- We have found this known ActiveSync issue (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2711181?wa=wsignin1.0#appliesto). It states that “Duplicate contacts may be created when you synchronize your mobile - device by using Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The duplicate contacts are synchronized to the user's mailbox on Microsoft Exchange Server.”.
- We also note that according to this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2563324 (issue 2.8) this issue was resolved in iOS6
Status/requirement:
- It is clear that this issue has not been resolved. Last update to KB 2711181 was in 2012 – any update since then?
- We would like to know what triggers this issue (I note https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2711053 regarding high CPU usage when syncing with Exchange which may be related) so that we avoid triggering the issue
Hope this makes sense – do let me know if you need any more info.
