AmbroseStafford
Level 1 (15 points)

Q: What are effective ways to merge duplicate Contacts in iOS? I have thousands of contact duplicated and in mosta cases there are several dozen identical entries.

Hi,

 

I have generated many duplicated Contacts in both iOS and Mac OS X.

In most cases the Contact entry is copied dozens of times.

I'd like to delete n-1 of the identical Contacts and, if possible, merge the contacts with the same name + email address + phone number.

 

Can you recommend some applications that are designed to accomplish these tasks ?

 

Can you suggest some reason why the copies of contacts were generated?

Whatever the reason is, copies may still be being generated. So, I also need to solve the root cause.

 

Thank you.

Posted on Dec 21, 2015 10:53 AM

by Lawrence Finch,Apple recommended
Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch
Level 8 (37,876 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Open the Contacts app in iOS OS X. On the Card menu choose Look for duplicates.

Posted on Dec 21, 2015 11:02 AM

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AmbroseStafford

Q: What are effective ways to merge duplicate Contacts in iOS? I have thousands of contact duplicated and in mosta cases there are se ... more

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Templeton Peck,

    Templeton Peck Templeton Peck Dec 21, 2015 10:54 AM in response to AmbroseStafford
    Level 9 (62,070 points)
    Dec 21, 2015 10:54 AM in response to AmbroseStafford

    You would want to do this on your computer...not on a small, less featured device such as a phone.

  • by Lawrence Finch,Apple recommended

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Dec 21, 2015 11:02 AM in response to AmbroseStafford
    Level 8 (37,876 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 21, 2015 11:02 AM in response to AmbroseStafford

    Open the Contacts app in iOS OS X. On the Card menu choose Look for duplicates.

  • by AmbroseStafford,

    AmbroseStafford AmbroseStafford Jan 2, 2016 5:31 PM in response to AmbroseStafford
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 2, 2016 5:31 PM in response to AmbroseStafford

    Thank you Templeton Peck and Lawrence Finch,

     

    I used the Look for duplicates menu function. It found ~65 duplicates and I merged them.

    However, I have more than 10,000 contacts and still have many more duplicates.

     

    What, if any, other applications are you aware of that can be used to conduct "house keeping" on the contacts database?

     

    In addition to merging the 100% duplicate contacts I'd like to clean up the contacts with with the same name, company and office phone number with other contact records with the same name, company and office phone number but different information in other fields.

     

    Thanks for your help and happy new year.

  • by Lawrence Finch,Apple recommended

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Jan 2, 2016 5:51 PM in response to AmbroseStafford
    Level 8 (37,876 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 2, 2016 5:51 PM in response to AmbroseStafford

    One thing to try is to rerun the duplicate check several times, until it no longer finds any. I had to do that a few months ago, with only 1500 contacts. There were 3rd party applications that I recall, but I haven't used any recently. I just googled "dedupe mac contacts" and found several, both for iOS and Mac. One in particular looked for multiple duplicated fields, such as phone numbers and addresses.

  • by Meyevil,

    Meyevil Meyevil Sep 14, 2016 2:34 AM in response to Lawrence Finch
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 14, 2016 2:34 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

    This doesn't help me, for squat.  I have, possibly, thousands of "No Name" contacts in my phone, and I want to get rid of them all at once.  It's effecting my memory, and I refuse to delete them one-by-one.  I don't have a Mac, and don't intend on getting one.  So, how do I remedy this, without throwing the phone at the phone company I bought it from?

  • by Lawrence Finch,

    Lawrence Finch Lawrence Finch Sep 14, 2016 6:30 AM in response to Meyevil
    Level 8 (37,876 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 14, 2016 6:30 AM in response to Meyevil

    I wasn't answering you, and based on your attitude I'm not going to.