Synced fields
Field mapping
Whatever the provider, RingSync converts each user to the same shape, then the app writes it to a native contact.
| Contact field | Microsoft Entra ID (Graph) | Google Workspace (Admin SDK) | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| First name | givenName | name.givenName | First or last name |
| Last name | surname | name.familyName | First or last name |
| Email (work) | mail | primaryEmail | Yes |
| Phone (work) | first item of businessPhones | phones of type work | No |
| Phone (mobile) | mobilePhone | phones of type mobile | No |
| Job title | jobTitle | organizations (primary): title | No |
| Department | department | organizations (primary): department | No |
| Company | companyName | organizations (primary): name | No |
| Photo | profile photo | profile thumbnail | No |
| "RingSync" link | added by RingSync | added by RingSync | — |
The contact's display name is the first name followed by the last name. The "RingSync" link (ringsync://…) lets the app recognize its own contacts, for example after a reinstall: do not delete it.
Who is synced, who is left out
A person is skipped if:
- they are an Entra ID guest (
userType=Guest). Google has no notion of guest; - they have no email. On Entra, the
mailattribute is what counts: a user without a mailbox, who only has a UPN, is skipped; - they have neither a first nor a last name, which is the case for rooms, resources and technical accounts.
A person is removed from phones if:
- their account is disabled (Entra) or suspended (Google);
- they were already on the phone and no longer meet the rules above (became a guest, email or name removed).
The group scope and exclusions apply on top of these rules. Skipped or excluded people do not count toward your plan's synced contacts limit.
Updates
- A change in the directory reaches the contact at the phone's next sync.
- A field cleared in the directory does not erase the value already on the contact.
- Sync is one-way: an edit made by hand to a synced contact can be overwritten by a later sync. A synced contact deleted by hand is recreated by a later sync that involves that person.
Photos
- RingSync passes photos on to the phone without saving them on its servers.
- Google says whether a person has a photo. Microsoft does not, so on the first sync the app asks for every person's photo, which makes the first sync of a large directory longer.
- The phone remembers each person's photo, or the fact that they have none, for 7 days.
- The directory does not report photo changes. At the end of each sync, the app checks again the photos it has known for more than 7 days, oldest first, up to 50 people and 10 seconds per pass. A photo change can therefore take several days, or several syncs, to appear.
- A changed photo replaces the one on the contact; a photo deleted in the directory is removed from the contact.
Where contacts are stored
On iPhone
- Each directory forms a group in the Contacts app, named after the directory. A shared directory gets its own group.
- Contacts are written to the phone's local container when iOS offers one. Otherwise iOS puts them in the default container, which is iCloud when iCloud Contacts is on. See Security and data.
- The app asks for access to all contacts: limited access does not allow creating the group.
On Android
- Contacts are written to the phone's local account, with no group per directory. You can recognize them by their "RingSync" link.
- If the app is installed in a work profile, contacts are written to that profile.
On both platforms, someone who is in two synced directories appears twice, once per directory.
Personal contacts
The app never changes or deletes a contact it did not create. For each directory, it keeps the list of contacts it wrote, and every update, removal and purge applies to that list only. Remove synced contacts, in the app's settings, deletes only the contacts RingSync wrote.