iphone 8 wont update outlook 2016 contacts

[chatham]

outlook always synced contacts when the iPhone was connected to the PC. it worked perfectly with different versions of outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013 and I believe 2016. I have noticed recently that it no longer updates contacts from PC when it syncs. I have made changes to contacts on the PC and these changes are not being sync/transferred to the iPhone. this was never a problem before. what might be causing this?

both the PC and iPhone are up to date with operating systems etc.

 

[chatham]

after researching this subject it appears that apple has removed the ability to sync outlook 2016 with iPhone. it seems that they prefer to force everyone to the icloud platform. many years ago I tried icloud and found that it totally screwed up my outlook folders and contacts. so is there some other way?