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How to get the global address list on iPhone

Updated 13 October 2026

An iPhone with the work account added as a Microsoft Exchange account can search the global address list (GAL) while it is online. The GAL is never copied to the phone, so colleagues are missing from the Contacts app and their calls show only a number. For that, they have to be written as contacts into each mailbox.

1. Know what the GAL is

The global address list is Exchange Online’s list of all recipients in the organisation: users, groups, shared mailboxes and mail contacts. It lives on the server and is kept up to date by Microsoft 365 as people join and leave. Outlook on the desktop can also download it as an offline address book, which is only used by Outlook, not by phones.

2. Add the Exchange account on the iPhone

Go to Settings › Apps › Mail › Mail Accounts › Add Account, choose Microsoft Exchange and sign in with the work account. Turn on Mail and Contacts in the sync list and tap Save. An account added as IMAP carries mail only and cannot look up the directory.

3. Search the directory

With the Exchange account on the phone, colleagues can be found while the phone has a connection:

  • In the Mail app, start typing a colleague’s name in the To field of a new message. Matches from the directory are offered along with the user’s own contacts.
  • In the Contacts app, the Exchange account’s directory can be opened from the list of accounts and lists and searched by name. Where it sits depends on the iOS version.
  • In the Outlook app, a search for a name finds colleagues in the organisation and shows their contact card.

From a search result, a single colleague can be saved to the phone’s contacts by hand. That copy is not updated when the colleague changes number or leaves.

4. Why the GAL never becomes contacts

The iPhone syncs the Contacts folder in the user’s own mailbox. The GAL is a separate directory that the phone queries on demand, and Microsoft 365 has no built-in setting that copies it into the phone’s contacts. That has three consequences:

  • Incoming calls from colleagues show a number, because the phone only matches callers against stored contacts.
  • Without signal, nobody can find a colleague.
  • Colleagues cannot be picked from the phone’s own Contacts app.

For colleagues to show up as contacts with caller ID, they have to be written into the Contacts folder of every mailbox and kept current as people join, change number or leave. Doing that by export and import works once and is out of date the next week.