Why do I have 2, 3, even 4 duplicate contacts after I back up my phone?

Question

Why do I have 2, 3, even 4 duplicate contacts after I back up my phone?

Every time I look at my contacts on my iPhone, iPad or iMac I see duplicates, triplicates and in one instance four copies of the same contact.

When I follow Apples instructions to hand review each contact and "look for duplicates" it says none exist and then does nothing.

I followed the instructions on iCloud as well and.... nothing.

Some say this happens everytime we back up our phones. If so why?

Evidently this has been a problem since as far back as 2016. Has Apple not addressed this or know how to fix?

Help!!!

iMac Pro, macOS 11.5

Posted on Dec 16, 2021 3:20 PM

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Answer 1

faith185

Community Specialist

Dec 17, 2021 2:13 PM in response to timkenneymarketing

Hi timkenneymarketing,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities. We understand that some of your contacts are being replicated multiple times.

Do these contacts appear to be connected to any particular account? You can view contacts by individual accounts from Contacts on your iOS devices. Tap Groups in the upper left corner, then select one account at a time.

It looks like you recently reviewed If you see duplicate contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts. If you've tried the steps there and are unable to isolate this to a certain account, it may be best to contact Apple Support.

You can reach out from Get Support or using the direct phone number for your region from Contact Apple for support and service.

Take care.

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Answer 2

Dec 17, 2021 4:00 PM in response to timkenneymarketing

Thank you for your prompt response. I only have one account. As probably 99% of iPhone users.

Having to reach out to Support suggests you think this only a problem with this iPhone (user error), but there are literally thousands of posts about this online, so I doubt it's a user error as implied. If the phone was so complex to use that it requires support calls for many of us, I'm pretty sure that would have been against Steve Jobs coding standards.

The problem is that while Apple and others offer solutions (copied from Apple) They don't work. And none of them address the fact that there are different contacts and different types of contacts on the phone and iCloud. For example cards on iCloud, contacts on the phone. Contacts on iCloud and cards on the phone.

Why would Apple Dev even allow this to happen in the first place? Why aren't contacts matched when the phone is being backed up either to computer OR iCloud? I can't believe iCloud is that dumb.

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Why do I have 2, 3, even 4 duplicate contacts after I back up my phone?

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