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Is there a Office 365 Contacts limit?

Hi there, i have a client who is using office 365. And has grown to around 15 users.

1 email account is being used for a centralized contacts/address book which contains around 9500 contacts

From reading https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/exchange-online-limits.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
it suggest the limit is set to 1000 contacts but obviously this isnt the case for me.

The client main aim is to have these 9500 contacts available in their outlook for mac and on the native iphone contact list.

Does anyone know of a better way to do this or see any issues with this current setup?

Vasil Michev (MVP)

If you store them in the Contacts folder of a mailbox, aim to be below 10k. That's the recommended value for items in Contacts/Calendar types folder, above that Outlook might start having performance issues. Those are not "hard" limits, just recommended values, you can definitely store more than 10k Contacts in a folder.

Mobile devices will also have issues due to ActiveSync limitations/implementation. So maybe it's best if you store them directly in the GAL or multiple mailboxes.

David

ASKER

Hi Vasil
Is that 10k figure one you know from experience or is this what MS have stated?
I may be wrong but i remeber reading the GAL would struggle with more than 500 contacts?

Can you expand on what you mean by "Mobile devices will also have issues due to ActiveSync limitations/implementation"

Thanks again and happy new year

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Vasil Michev (MVP)

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David

ASKER

IS there any benefit to storing these 9500 contacts in the GAL instead of another mailbox?

Speaking to MS on friday they suggested i keep each contact folder limited to around 1000 to limit any synchronization issues. I do this this would help but then again i see issues when searching for contacts in outlook as you would have to select the appropriate contacts folder to search within.