How can I prevent duplicate contacts from appearing on Apple devices?

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Also, get rid of CleanMyMacX. It's borderline malware and can cause all sorts of unexpected issues.

sbstrum wrote:

I also wonder why EtreCheckPro did not identify this problem. I sent in the full report. Are you suggesting I opt to purchase the Power User package of EtreCheck?

The main reason to purchase the Power User version is to support the developer who happens to be a really great guy who donates a lot of expertise to these forums. But doing so won't really get you more information.

etrecheck is a tool, not a solution. It isn't going to give you a a readout that says, "Problem with Contacts and the solution is.....". It's more like looking at an x-ray, seeing a shadow, and then doing more tests, more procedures to determine whether or not it's cancer or something else. What your etrecheck report tells us is that 1) you have software that is known to cause problems (CMM), and 2) that you use Outlook, which is a known cause of duplicates in Contacts. You seem unwilling to consider the first issue and, so far, seem to just have ignored the second.

I would add one additional note. It appears you're using Contacts with multiple groups and, at a guess, north of a thousand contacts. While Contacts is not "garbage," it is intended to manage an individual's personal contacts. You can push it beyond that, but, it's not designed for heavy-duty business use. My Honda Fit would fail miserably at serious off-road use. That doesn't mean it's a bad car. The right tool for the right job.

On your Mac, with Contacts open, check what accounts you have in the sidebar. If you have signed out of iCloud, and are syncing Contacts with iCloud, you are given an option to save the data to your Mac and if you choose that you will have an additional account in your sidebar with those contacts, usually with the heading "On My Mac". Each time this is done by saving the data to your Mac you will gain another account. If you have "All Contacts" chosen in the sidebar, then you will see all the accounts which will be mostly duplicates of what you have in iCloud and what you have saved on your Mac.

In the future, there is no need to save the data on your Mac when signing out of iCloud if you are already syncing the data. That way what you see in the Contacts will depend on what you have in iCloud. If someone else signs into iCloud, they will see their Data and not yours that is saved on the Mac.

Most users do not experience what you are seeing.

Readers here on the Apple User-to-User forums probably do not have additional answers for why your specific setup should be going so badly, or they would have blurted them out.

Apple is not working an a fix, because they do not know it is a problem.

You need to contact Apple support, and work with them to obtain a solution. If so solution is forthcoming, be assertive enough to ask for a Specialist to continue to work to solve this problem, or have them file Bug report on your behalf.

Official Apple Support

Suggested Experiment:

They will likely try to cobble up a way to eliminate third-party add-on software as the culprit. I suggest you restart and stay in Safe Mode, and add a contact in Safe Mode. if this results is multiple contacts added, that suggests MacOS (along with iCloud) software is solely to blame.

1. To further troubleshoot the duplicates, when viewing the Lists in Contacts, do the duplicates only show in the iCloud list or the Gmail list? Also when viewing contacts online at iCloud and Gmail, does the duplicates only appear on one of the services? Is it possible for you to use just one service to sync your contacts by exporting the contacts from one to the other? There has been some discussion about Gmail and iCloud using different formats to store the contacts (vCard and CSV) that has caused some problems with more information here: https://talk.tidbits.com/t/sync-contacts-to-both-icloud-and-google/17641
2. For CleanMyMac, you apparently haven't searched this support forum using the method already suggested. It is difficult to argue the matter when a person poses a problem and the issue is resolved when CleanMyMac is removed. You will also be able to see the difficulty users have had removing the app. I don't think CleanMyMac is the problem you are having with your contacts, only trying to clarify with facts that is has caused problems with many users and it is recommended that it should be removed for these reasons. Search - Apple Community
3. No, you do not need to purchase anything else for EtreCheck. It is intended to show a wealth of information about your computer to help resolve a lot of issues. This includes Kernel panics, diagnostic reports, drive performance, network activity, CPU usage, Memory management, and much more. Taken as a whole it provides a picture of what may be going on. In your case, we would be looking to see if there are any issues that were reported by the system with syncing data that keeps failing or if the Contacts app kept crashing. It's a diagnostic tool and will not identify every problem, but it does save a lot of time by not having you find the crash logs, diagnostic logs yourself and posting them separately and also provides the machine you are using and the OS version. It provides all this information in one neat report without having to ask for each item.

Multiple copies of contacts MAY be caused by activating storage of contacts information on multiple Internet service providers.

When you set up Mail (and related services) on many Internet service providers, you are often offered checkboxes indicating exactly what you wish to store there:

it is possible that if you have checked Contacts on MULTIPLE services, each and every one of them is storing an additional version of your Contacts, resulting in duplicates when you view them in contacts.app.

doubleodd wrote:

I must disagree that the problem is not known. Apple Contacts has been totally broken for years now. Every tiny edit involves the spinning death wheel for 10 seconds at least. I've spoken to many Apple tech support people and they all say the same thing. Yes people complain. No there is no fix in the works. It's shocking that such an essential piece of simple software is nearly useless. I'm bewildered by the inattention to Contacts by Apple. a couple coders could fix the entire thing in a weekend.

You obviously have a software conflict with a process that is running on your system. If you are looking to solve the problem, then first delete all:

• Cleaners
• Optimizers
• AntiVirus
• VPN

After that post the free EtreCheck report here using the Additional Text option when posting. This will detail the processes that are consuming resources that are giving you the beachball.

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

Well, Clean my Mac is well-known malware, so I wouldn’t count on it for anything.

There is one known cause of duplicate contacts. If you have a Microsoft Exchange email account on your phone, and you have Contacts turned on for it in Settings/Contacts/Accounts, every time you edit contacts in the app if you close the app before it finishes updating the Exchange ActiveSync process will add a duplicate contact the next time you open Contacts because it didn’t get a confirmation of the previous add.

I’m not aware of any other situations that can cause duplicates,

There is a feature in Mac Contacts to remove duplicates: In Contacts, click the Card Menu, then Look for Duplicates.

sbstrum wrote:

I related your message to MacPaw makers of CleanMyMac X. They replied with what I consider a logical and appropriate message:

I would not expect anything less from them. All you need to do is click the Search tab on the top of this page and enter CleanMyMac. You will see over 10,000 issues specific to CleanMyMac. Those are the facts. It will cause problems with your computer and removing it is never easy. Even the MacPaw uninstaller leaves traces of files behind that continue to run on startup and you will not be able to remove them by simply dragging the app to the trash. The Apple notarization is in no way a recommendation and many users had to resort to a clean install of their computer after the damage has been done.

Using the iPad version is not as problematic. The iOS version will simply not allow apps to install additional files that have caused problems on the Mac. This also means there is nothing that this version does that can't easily be done on your own. You are spending money on something that will not benefit you in any way. Finding duplicate photos is done automatically in the photos app and organizing photos is also done easily using the Photos app. The network module is nothing more than checking you speed on a website such as speedtest.net.

As for your Contacts issue, I do suspect it has something to do with communication between an Exchange/Outlook account. While you have not said if you are syncing with one of these, that is the only time where this issue has been reported. If you do have one of these, are you able to log into that account to see if the Contact is also duplicated there. More information can be found here if this applies to you. This one deals with iOS, but the Mac syncs the contacts in the same way.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/exchange/troubleshoot/mobile-devices/duplicate-contacts-in-ios-contacts-app

3/18/24 using brand new iMac M3 running OS 14.2 (aka Sonoma)

I really do not know what has happened to Apple. Contacts on Monterey was flawed, and this has not been corrected on Sonoma. Every edit of any contact results in SBOD (spinning beachball of death). The app also is horribly configured with iCloud and creates anywhere from 2 to 50 or more duplicate contacts.

What's going on Apple? This is my 4th or 5th imac, two MBPros, 3 MacAirs, 2 iPads, many iPhones, an iPod and an Apple watch. How can such a lucrative and successful company be do delinquent in fixing a blatant problem on a brand new clean installation of what is supposed to be your "Cadillac" of computers.

Stephen, age 81, Vietnam Veteran, Research Scientist

My only accounts on my iPhone and on my iMac are Google's Gmail and Apple's iCloud. On my iPhone 8+ the only email accounts are the same Gmail and iCloud.

I have used the merge duplicates many times and the problem recurs. I believe it is with iCloud.

Just now checked Cards looking for duplicates:

21,668 Duplicate Cards and 14 duplicated entries were found. I merged these once again. Will see if this problem recurs.

I think some of the comments made about CleanMyMac (CMM) are in need of clarification (i.e., transparency). I have formally written to MacPaw about the issues raised on this thread with duplicate contacts and also with the inability to completely uninstall the app and not leave traces of CMM behind.

I also wonder why EtreCheckPro did not identify this problem. I sent in the full report. Are you suggesting I opt to purchase the Power User package of EtreCheck?

Apple does not read here for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

Hello Jrocco71,

I wish I could answer to your posting with some hints or tips, that is not the case however and my purpose for commenting is meant to align with you to affirm that I 100 percent agree that the contacts app is garbage. No other app constantly spins the wheel or make it unbearably painful to even ad a contact. How Apple can can justify still making this app available is beyond belief as it has been going on for years.. As you I am sick and tired of having to work with such a useless program, the only reason is of course the Apple universe connection but the end is near as today just by stating the program it just spins. APPLE WAKE UP and do something about a horrible application.

I must disagree that the problem is not known. Apple Contacts has been totally broken for years now. Every tiny edit involves the spinning death wheel for 10 seconds at least. I've spoken to many Apple tech support people and they all say the same thing. Yes people complain. No there is no fix in the works. It's shocking that such an essential piece of simple software is nearly useless. I'm bewildered by the inattention to Contacts by Apple. a couple coders could fix the entire thing in a weekend.

It appears that the users who were having trouble realized that they did have one or more of the problematic classes of software on their system and the issue was resolved after removing them. Instead of confirming that it was the cause, they just remained quiet and did not want to post the EtreCheck report.