iOS Outlook Contacts Sync Without Apple ID Error

[jeremybible]

We are attempting to configure devices going forward without logging them into Apple IDs and having all contacts come from the outlook contacts sync feature.  However, when we attempt to turn on contact sync in Outlook without being logged into an Apple ID we receive the following error message: 

"Couldn't Sync Contacts, Try turning on contact syncing on your iPhone from Settings > Your Name > Contacts. If that doesn't work, contact your IT admin as your organization might not allow syncing."

I can't imagine the issue being the later because our policies allow this and we are able to do this on devices that are logged into an Apple ID.

Microsoft documentation claims "If there is no account connected to the device, then your Outlook contacts will be saved locally but will not be synced to other devices."

So according to that we should be able to sync contacts from Outlook to the device without the need for an Apple ID.

Has anyone else run into this and come up with a solution?

Thanks.

[aberryman]

Hi, do you have any Device Restrictions policies configured? If you have a device restriction profile configured to block corporate data in an unmanaged app (i.e. native contacts) you also need to have "Allow unmanaged apps to read from managed contacts accounts"

Intune > Devices > Policy > Configuration profiles > Create > New Policy:
Platform = iOS
Profile type = Templates >> Select Device restrictions
Create > Name it > Next
In "App Store, Doc Viewing, Gaming" turn on "Block viewing" and "Allow unmanaged" (top 2 options)
Next > Add Group > Next > Create

Not exactly sure if this is what you're looking for but I ran into this yesterday. A user was in a group with "Block viewing" enabled which is additive to the other device restriction policies I have in place. Drove me nuts for half the day.

Outlook contact syncing is a pain that seems to never work 100%

[kitus]

Hi there! I can confirm that with a vanilla iPhone (no intune) setting the default account to iCloud, contact syncing through Outlook App works fine.

[jeremybible · Accepted solution]

I resolved this.

This policy was set to yes and was causing the issue.  Turning it off resolved the issue.
"Block viewing non-corporate documents in corporate apps"