folk and Outlook: what syncs, what doesn't, and how to set it up
folk's native Outlook connector reads contacts, email and calendar events from Microsoft into folk contact profiles. It is read-only: nothing syncs back, and Standard caps the view at 30 interactions per contact.
- Connector
- Native connector built by folk, included in the plan price, connected from folk's Settings
- Sync direction
- Outlook → folk only; the connection is read-only
- Setup time
- Three steps per user in folk; the docs give no time. A Microsoft admin approval adds a wait if your tenant restricts apps
- Availability
- Email, calendar and WhatsApp sync is listed on Standard, Premium and Enterprise; 1 connected account per member on Standard, 5 on Premium
- Our rating
- 4 out of 5. Read-only sync of Outlook contacts, email and events on every paid plan; nothing writes back, and Standard shows 30 interactions per contact.
| What | Direction | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | Outlook → folk | Imports contacts saved in your Outlook contact folders, plus people Microsoft ranks as relevant to you. New contacts arrive in folk Search. folk does not place them in a group. |
| Emails | Outlook → folk | Imports subject, content, date and participants and pins each email to the matching contact profile. Skips unread and archived mail, junk, spam, drafts, trash, mailing lists and emails with more than 20 recipients. |
| Calendar events | Outlook → folk | Imports event name, content, date and participants. Skips events with more than 20 attendees and events more than 1 month ahead. folk shows at most 5 future interactions. |
| Interaction history | Outlook → folk | On first connection folk imports the last 3 years. Standard shows up to 30 interactions per contact. Premium shows the full history. |
| Sharing with teammates | Outlook → folk | Interactions are private by default. You can share Subject only or Full access with the workspace, per connected account. |
| Last interaction and strongest connection fields | Derived | folk's smart fields draw on synced interactions. Hiding internal interactions leaves these fields empty for teammate contacts. |
Setting it up
- Check the plan. Email, calendar and WhatsApp sync is included on Standard and above, and a new workspace starts with a 2-week trial.
- Ask your Microsoft admin to approve folk first if your tenant restricts third-party apps. Otherwise the user sees an "Admin approval required" screen.
- In folk, open Settings, go to Accounts and click Connect a Microsoft account. Sign in with the Microsoft account you want to sync.
- Grant the read-only permissions folk requests: contacts, people, mail and calendars, plus offline access to keep the connection alive.
- Wait for the import of contacts and the last 3 years of interactions, then check a few contact profiles.
- Set sharing for the account to Private, Subject only or Full access. Admins on the plan that includes security controls can also hide internal interactions and list sensitive domains.
Where the integration stops
- Nothing writes back to Outlook. folk requests read-only permissions and never modifies, sends or deletes anything in your Microsoft account. Contact edits made in folk stay in folk.
- Standard shows 30 interactions per contact and syncs 1 account per member. Premium shows unlimited interactions over the last 3 years and syncs 5 accounts per member.
- Imported contacts are not added to a group. They appear in Search. To route them into a group, build a Zapier or Make workflow on Premium or above.
- Filters drop some mail and events. Unread and archived messages, mailing lists, emails with more than 20 recipients and events with more than 20 attendees never reach folk.
- Microsoft tenants can block the connection. If your organization restricts third-party apps, Microsoft asks for admin approval, and folk cannot bypass it.
- Disconnecting deletes the synced email interactions. The folk docs say removing or deactivating the Outlook account removes every synced email interaction from folk.
- The docs don't say how Outlook recurring events are handled. The Outlook article lists only recurring Google Calendar events as skipped.
folk's Outlook connector reads your Microsoft contacts, emails and calendar events and attaches them to contact profiles. It suits small teams that live in Outlook and want a relationship timeline without typing anything in. folk builds the connector and includes it in the plan price.
The fact that surprises teams: the connection is read-only. folk requests read permissions only, so a contact edited in folk never reaches Outlook. For two-way contact sync you need a different route.
The sync runs one way, from Outlook into folk
Contacts, emails and events flow into folk. Nothing flows back. folk's docs describe the sync as real-time but give no interval.
Contacts land in folk Search, not in a group. To route them into a group, folk's help center describes a Zapier or Make workflow. See folk and Zapier for that setup. The pricing page puts API access, which that workflow uses, on Premium.
Standard shows 30 interactions per contact
On first connection folk imports the last 3 years of interactions. Standard then shows up to 30 per contact. Premium shows the full history.
Standard also syncs 1 account per member. Premium syncs 5. A person with a shared mailbox and a personal mailbox needs Premium to connect both. Compare costs on the folk pricing page.
Filters and privacy settings decide what arrives
folk skips unread and archived mail, junk, spam, drafts and trash. It skips mailing lists, emails with more than 20 recipients and events with more than 20 attendees. Events more than 1 month ahead are skipped too, and folk shows at most 5 future interactions.
Interactions stay private until the user shares them. Sharing is a per-account choice between Subject only and Full access.
Hiding internal interactions and marking sensitive domains are the admin tools for shared workspaces. The pricing page lists these controls under Enterprise. The help article says Premium and Custom plans. Confirm with folk before you plan around them on Premium.
Admin approval is the usual setup blocker
The connection takes three steps in folk. The common delay sits in Microsoft. If your tenant restricts third-party apps, a Microsoft administrator must approve folk first. Ask for that before you invite the team.
The Gmail connector uses the same Google and Microsoft sync model. See folk and Gmail for that side, and the Outlook integrations page for other CRMs. Plan details for the vendor are on the folk vendor page.