iOS 17 iPhone doesn’t show me the option to merge duplicate contacts

Demonet wrote:

Apple support, please advise a fix. Please DO NOT (so tired of seeing this in support threads) reply with an article telling us to use the "Duplicates Found/Merge Duplicates" button...because not being able to do that is the issue.

This is a user-to-user support forum. There are no more Community specialists. Apple Support will not be replying to you here. You can contact them directly using the "Support" link at the bottom left of every page of these forums.

To justinb2603: Folks are saying there is no 'DUPLICATES FOUND' under our 'My Card' as this article instructs!!!! Therefore this article doesn't help. Thanks for the attempt, honestly, I know you're trying to help - - but PLEASE we should read all the comments on a thread before answering rather than jump to a conclusion of what's needed with a quick scan. It's clear this article doesn't help. Thanks.

You are absolutely right this article is completely worthless, and I can see that I will have a greater likelihood of successfully going through and manually clearing my massive contact list before Apple can properly resolve this ongoing problem. I see it’s been a persistent issue since 2019. Apple, really this is utterly ridiculous. I never had this problem whenever I used to own an Android!

Apple support suggests

① delete by hand ② change to faster VPN

after trying syncing to and back Google I am using paid App to delete multiple contacts. This is taking months….

did anyone tried saving essential contacts to iCloud and then deleting all?

That’s the whole point of this thread: The button (or option) to select to merge duplicate contacts is NO LONGER THERE.

Honestly, this has been such a hassle, it’s far easier to delete ALL CONTACTS and not worry about it anymore. I am NOT going to manually go through over 3000 contacts.

Apple should be better than this, but they are not. They have failed miserably in correcting this issue in the past three upgrades (that I can recall), and maybe more.

I had 3 with identical information for the same contact, my husband. He has been in my contacts for years. All of a sudden he’s in my contacts with 3 separate entries. And all of a sudden I could not call him from the iMessage app. I’ve always been able to tap on his picture and bring up those options and the call option and the FaceTime option were gray, but email was still available from the iMessage app. it seems like every update contacts are missing or contacts are duplicated. In order to fix my husband‘s contact so I could call him from the iMessage app. I had to delete him, reboot my phone several times, add him again and reboot my phone again several more times before it was fixed.

Very frustrating.

I have the same problem too, iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 17.4.1

I definitely have duplicate contacts with the same name but for example, one has a landline and the other has a mobile, anyway maybe I'll call Apple

because there is still no button to merge duplicates

This was a fresh approach to this persistent problem, and I thought I’d give it a go! I appreciate that “someone out there, somewhere, is still trying to get to the bottom of this; however, it has failed on my iPhone 14 Pro Max running iOS 17.4.1 (and all apps are updated every morning).

I followed the instructions, but when I got to the bottom of my contacts list, the total number of contacts is in black and “unclickable.”

Unfortunately, this did not work for me, but thank you for the suggestion! It is appreciated. The “merge duplicate contact” button used to appear at the top of the list (it never worked, but the option once used to be there). Now, it’s nowhere at all.

Still.

Thank you, I thought I tried it both ways, so I took the screenshot of the last attempt. :-)

However, I just did as you suggested, and I got the same result.

This is so weird. Only worse because I have even more contacts outside of Apple, lol

You are ACES in my book, and I respect your insights!

I could back everything up and do a full factory reset, but honestly, since that is the only thing that is broken, I am not going to do that. Too much of a bother.

Apple broke something in one of their updates, for way too many users, so I am going to let it ride. It’s been nice “working with” you on this issue! Hope you have a great day!

Oh yes, I definitely did that, and you were right to comment that. Thank you. :-)

I have also tried cleaning up the Duplicate Contacts via my MacBook Pro. At least that option IS possible, but that process does not work in the way one would hope. It’s still “contact by contact”, and that’s ridiculous since it’s “Apple.”

Google clears up mass duplicate contacts, and so does even “ancient old Yahoo”!

I’ve thought of tinkering around with a backup of all of my contacts, wiping the slate clean on all Apple devices, and then using an Excel spreadsheet to clear things up and then use that “new and improved contact list” …

But this is Apple’s mistake. They need to fix it. We have all spent way too much on their products over the years, and they need to get on the ball.

Hope you have a great day!

…. And you would be right, lol.

Honestly, I thought, “that makes sense, why not give it another go?” I’m still sipping my chai latte, lol.

So I followed your instructions, as written, no dice. I even went back and tried again, and refreshed after each action, and still nothing.

Nothing has worked, but you are certainly top-notch in troubleshooting! If I find a solution, I’ll surely share it here, but for now, this is just one gnarly Apple mess.

Hi there can I ask if you got a fix for this as I have the same problem myself ?

thanks

John

Same problem here.

Any news on that?

Has anyone found out how to get the Merge Duplicates option back on the screen? It is currently not showing up on my Contact list.