Four of Each Contact

Each of my contacts appears four times in the Contacts app. The problem is, when I try to delete the duplicates, it deletes all entries for that contact, as if they're somehow linked. I see the same behavior on two of my Macs (signed in with the same account), but my iOS devices only show one entry for each contact. I have gone to Contacts > Preferences > Accounts, and I only see one account enabled, so it's not an issue of multiple accounts' contacts conflicting.


The other weird thing, and I think this is the source of the issue, is that I see many different entries in "Groups," all of which are just called "card." Each of these contains mostly the same contacts.

User uploaded file


Any advice on how to proceed? Do I just need to turn off all contacts, and then re-add my one account? Or is there some way I can delete some of these "cards" to resolve this?

 MacBook Pro with Retina display-OTHER, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 15 in, Late 2013, 256GB, 8GB RAM

Posted on May 28, 2016 2:19 PM

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4 replies

May 28, 2016 3:50 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

SJF,


Backup your iCloud Contacts: If you see duplicate contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts - Apple Support.


Have you tried un-checking/re-checking the "Enable this account" setting in Contacts>Preferences...>Accounts?


What happens to the "card" entries after "unchecking?"


Another option, if that is not successful, is to toggle Off/On the System Preferences...>iCloud>Contacts selection.

User uploaded file

May 28, 2016 3:42 PM in response to Ferd II

Unfortunately, when I went to Card > Look for Duplicates per the recommendation in the article you linked to, it deleted the duplicates, but it deleted the originals along with them! Then Contacts crashed, so when I relaunched it there was no "Undo" option. 😟


However, I was able to resolve the issue. I went to my other MacBook Pro, I turned off the Wi-Fi so iCloud contacts wouldn't update, then I opened Contacts. I exported the vCard, sent it to my main Mac, and now I got all the contacts back! When I exported the vCard, I only exported one of the "card" entries from the group menu, and that seemed to have all my contacts - and just one copy.


Anyway, all said and done, I'm happy. And thanks for your help anyway.

May 28, 2016 3:50 PM in response to stevejobsfan0123

stevejobsfan0123 wrote:


Unfortunately, when I went to Card > Look for Duplicates per the recommendation in the article you linked to, it deleted the duplicates, but it deleted the originals along with them! Then Contacts crashed, so when I relaunched it there was no "Undo" option. 😟



Anyway, all said and done, I'm happy. And thanks for your help anyway.

That was the reason I wrote: "Backup your iCloud Contacts," which was the first step listed in the linked article. 😉


You are welcome...glad to help.

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Four of Each Contact

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