Understanding Outlook desktop versus Windows 10 Mail app
With Microsoft’s seeming penchant to name everything email related as Outlook, it is understandable that there is confusion for those new to Windows 10 and Office (Outlook).
First and foremost, the Windows 10 Mail / People / Calendar apps are completely separate from the Outlook (desktop) program that is part of the Office 365 suite of programs. There is no connection between the two programs which means that any email accounts or contacts etc that are configured in one must be configured in the other if there is a desire to use both.
It’s not uncommon for people new to things to start with the free Windows 10 apps and then at some point wish to migrate to the far more complete and robust Office desktop suite thinking that Outlook (desktop) will sync with/share information with the WIndows 10 apps (and vice versa). The reality is simply that this is not the case. Each is separate and distinct from the other and there is no way to “import” or “sync” settings from one to the other.
To put this yet in another way, Outlook contacts created in Win10 Mail cannot be imported into Outlook desktop. However, if both email clients are using the same Exchange based email account (i.e. Outlook.com) then changes made by one email client will be reflected in the other email client. In this case, the two email clients are not syncing anything between themselves but rather accessing the same data residing on the server for that email account.
Category: Understanding Outlook
