Both my iPhone and iPad are showing some duplicate contacts, but iCloud.com nor my (mom's) MacBook Pro are.

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Both my iPhone and iPad are showing some duplicate contacts, but iCloud.com nor my (mom's) MacBook Pro are.

Contacts.app is showing near-exact duplication of some (not all) of my contacts, and the same contacts on both devices. However, I checked iCloud.com/contacts as well as Address Book on my mom's MacBook Pro (in a separate account from hers), and neither show any duplication. I quit Contacts.app in the respective multitasking trays and restarted both my iPhone and iPad, but the issues is still occuring. I'm considering doing a device restore from iCloud, but I'm unsure if this will rectify the issue.

Does anyone have any idea why this is occuring and how to fix it?

iPhone 4, Windows 7

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 6:38 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 28, 2012 6:50 PM in response to ahylianhuman

One reason you may have duplicates is that you have each contact listed under your 'iCloud' account AND under your 'on my mac' account. Only contacts in the iCloud account will sync.

Click on the ribbon in the Address Book to reveal 'Users & Groups', and then by selecting each account on the left side you will see which contacts are in which account. (make sure nothing is typed in the search field)

If this is the reason you have duplicates you have two options of dealing with the situation. Either you can leave the duplicates alone and click on one account or the other before clicking on the ribbon again to limit what you see to that account when you return to the main part of your Address Book.

Or you can delete all the contacts from one account (usually the 'on my mac' account if you want to continue syncing with iCloud). Click on the account you want to delete contacts from on the left side of the Address Book and select the first contact in the list on the right, shift click the last contact to select all and delete.

Finally, You may want to check your default account is set correctly in the Address Book preferences.

This user tip might help you understand how accounts work with Address Book.

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Answer 2

ahylianhuman Author

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Jul 28, 2012 7:01 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Actually, I have never synchronized either device with the MacBook through iTunes. I own a Windows PC that I sync only apps, music, and some videos with, but not much else, especially not contacts. The only account set up for Contacts is iCloud, and as such Contacts.app doesn't show "On My Mac" or any account-specific group.

Also, please note that the duplication didn't occur on the MacBook Pro, so "On My Mac" wouldn't apply here. The duplication issue is only on my iPhone and iPad, not iCloud.com nor the MacBook.

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Answer 3

ahylianhuman Author

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Jul 29, 2012 1:28 AM in response to ahylianhuman

I seemed to have solved the issue without going all-nuclear. Simply disabling and re-enabling iCloud contacts should do the trick. If you are having this specific issue (as in you are only using iCloud and your contacts aren't duplicated on iCloud.com — I urge you to check that first), this should fix it. Note that any contact-specific ringtones, text tones, and vibration patterns will revert to your global default.

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