Hi everyone! I’m trying to set up an automated workflow that pulls contact information from our Exchange server and stores it in a database. I need to extract basic contact details like email addresses, first names, and last names.
From what I’ve researched, I should be using Microsoft Graph API with an endpoint like:
https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/me/contacts
I want to build this integration using n8n as my workflow platform. Has anyone successfully connected Exchange Server to n8n before? What’s the best approach to authenticate and pull this contact data reliably? Any tips on setting up the API connection would be really helpful.
just set up something similar last month. one thing nobody mentioned - make sure ur exchange admin enables modern auth first or u’ll be banging ur head against the wall. also, the graph api sometimes returns partial data if contacts have weird formatting, so add validation in ur n8n workflow before pushing to the database. works solid once it’s dialed in though.
Exchange to n8n integration works great once you get through the initial setup pain. I wasted tons of time fighting with authentication when I first tried this. Microsoft Graph API is solid, but just use the Microsoft Graph node in n8n instead of raw HTTP requests - it’ll save you hours of debugging since it handles auth automatically. One thing that bit me was contact sync timing. If your Exchange has thousands of contacts, don’t pull everything each time. I store the last sync timestamp and use the filter parameter to only grab what’s changed. Also heads up - some contact fields return as complex objects, not simple strings, so plan your database schema accordingly. Test with a small batch first before hitting your full directory.
I’ve been doing Exchange and n8n integrations for about two years - here’s what works. You’re right about Microsoft Graph API, but watch out for some auth traps. You’ll need to register an app in Azure AD and set permissions - at least Contacts.Read. The tricky bit is choosing between delegated vs application permissions. Depends if you’re hitting one user’s contacts or need org-wide access. For n8n, skip hunting for Exchange connectors and just use the HTTP Request node. Set up OAuth 2.0 properly - throw your client ID and secret into n8n’s credential manager. Don’t forget token refresh since Graph API tokens die pretty fast. Here’s where I got burned: pagination. The contacts endpoint spits out batches, so your workflow needs to handle @odata.nextLink to grab everything. Also build in error handling for rate limits - Microsoft Graph gets cranky about API call frequency when you’re doing bulk ops.