Hi everyone! I’m trying to set up an automated workflow using n8n that pulls contact information from our Exchange server. What I need to extract is basic contact details like email addresses, first names, and last names, then store all this data in a database.
I’ve been researching and found that I should use Microsoft Graph API for this. Specifically, I think I need to make API calls to:
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/contacts
Has anyone successfully connected Exchange to n8n before? I’m looking for guidance on setting up this integration properly. Any tips on authentication or workflow configuration would be really helpful. Thanks in advance!
Been working with Exchange and n8n integrations for about a year now. Something that helped me avoid major headaches was setting up proper error handling in the workflow from the start. Exchange connections can be unstable and you dont want your entire automation failing because of temporary network issues. I found that using the HTTP Request node instead of the dedicated Graph node gave me more control over the authentication flow, especially when dealing with certificate-based authentication in enterprise environments. Also worth noting that if your Exchange server is on-premises rather than Exchange Online, you might need to go through Exchange Web Services instead of Graph API. The data structure is slightly different but the extraction process remains similar. Make sure to test with a small subset of contacts first before scaling up.
yeah i did this last month actually. make sure you register ur app in azure ad first and get the client credentials. the tricky part is getting the right permissions - you’ll need Contacts.Read at minimum. once thats sorted, the n8n microsoft graph node works pretty well for pulling contact data.
I ran into similar requirements about six months ago when automating our CRM sync. The Graph API approach is definitely correct, but there are a few gotchas worth mentioning. First, you’ll want to use application permissions rather than delegated if you’re pulling contacts from multiple users - this requires admin consent but saves headaches later. Also consider implementing pagination since the contacts endpoint returns batched results. In my experience, the OAuth2 flow in n8n can be finicky with Exchange, so test your token refresh logic thoroughly. One thing that caught me off guard was rate limiting - Microsoft Graph has pretty strict throttling, so build in some delay between requests if you’re processing large contact lists. The webhook approach worked better for real-time updates versus polling the API constantly.