Contacts imported from outlook got merged automatically

Question

Contacts imported from outlook got merged automatically

I bought a iphone 12 mini and I added my microsoft account to it. I am moving from an iPhone 7. My contacts were appearing perfectly fine in my iPhone 7.

I had moved to the iPhone 7 from a Lumia 920 and all my contacts had come into the iPhone 7 by just adding the microsoft/outlook account. So I did the same here and yes all my iPhone 7 contacts instantly appeared in the iPhon12 mini. However, some time later or immediately thereafter (I don't know when), some of my contacts merged with one another.

For eg I had a person named Nikhil and a different person named Nikhil Khandelwal who were two different persons. They got merged into a single contact.

I went to the edit contact button to see if they got linked in which case I would simple remove the linking but it doesn't show any linked contacts there.

I checked my iPhone 7 and the contacts have got merged in my iPhone 7 as well.

I checked my outlook account by logging in and the contacts have got merged there as well.

In none of the places am I getting the option to unmerge or unlink the contacts and they appear as a single contact only.

How do I undo this entire process? I don't know whose number is whose now and I dont want to call everyone up to verify this and save new contacts.

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Oct 6, 2021 7:46 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jeff_W.

Community Specialist

Oct 7, 2021 1:53 PM in response to sunnykhandelwal5

Greetings sunnykhandelwal5,

We understand that you are having some difficulty with contacts synced through your Microsoft account, and we'd like to get you started in the right direction. Since this issue is with your Microsoft account contacts, you will need to contact Microsoft directly for assistance.

Contact Microsoft Support

Take care.

Reply

Answer 2

mario49

Community Specialist

Oct 8, 2021 7:16 AM in response to sunnykhandelwal5

sunnykhandelwal5,

Thanks for the updated information. Contacts are not stored on your iPhone directly, they are synced from an account. In your case, the account is with Microsoft. Since the contacts are merged on the Microsoft website as well, the issue is not with your iPhones, but rather with that Microsoft account itself. You will be best served to contact Microsoft directly for further assistance.

Cheers.

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 8, 2021 8:13 AM in response to mario49

I am aware of that. However, for your kind information, the contacts are stored to my Microsoft account by my phone. They are created on my phone and edited on my phone. If i want to add a new contact or say edit an existing contact i do not log on to my Microsoft account and make changes there, i simply do it on my phone and the phone syncs the changes to my Microsoft account. Pls understand what my issue is. My contacts have been stored in my Microsoft account since 2013. Since that time, i have used multiple devices without issue. This issue occurred immediately after i added my Microsoft account to my iPhone 12 mini. I know that the change is being made by the iphone mini and not by any other device because the contacts are updated first on my iPhone 12 mini and later on other devices. So kindly provide a solution, if you have any, with this background. Its ok if you don’t have a solution, i will wait for someone else who understands the issue to reply to me or else look at other forums. Thank you for your concern anyways.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 7, 2021 9:53 PM in response to Jeff_W.

Hi Jeff. I’m sorry if i was not clear in my post. This is not an issue with my Microsoft account. I have had my Microsoft account with the contacts synced to various devices since approximately 2013. The issue was caused by my iPhone 12 mini where it deleted some of my contacts and merged them into one of my other existing contacts. 1 of their numbers were merged and the others were deleted. Nonetheless i have already raised this with Microsoft requesting them if they can undo the damage done by the syncing with the iPhone 12 mini. So i will let you know if they respond. In the meanwhile can you tell me if there is a way where i can reverse the merging of contacts done by the iphone mini automatically without any prompts or permissions.

for further information, i will illustrate an example-

I had a Contact 1 - Mr. ABC XYZ with 2 numbers

I had a contact 2- Mr. ABC with number who was a different person

both these contacts got merged and became a single contact Mr ABC XYZ. One of the numbers got deleted. The other number got merged with the other contact.

My iPhone 7 though has been a saviour and somehow is reviving those contacts again after a few hrs. So the new iphone 12 mini is deleting the contacts. Syncing them accorss to delete everywhere including my Microsoft account. My iPhone 7 revives them in a few hrs but is not able to sync them back. I have to share it to my new iphone via airdrop to the new phone

Reply

Contacts imported from outlook got merged automatically

Similar questions