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Biscotti

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 25, 2008
179
48
I just upgraded to iOS5. For some reason, My iPad now has all duplicate contacts. It shows 1200 instead of the 600 I have on my computer and phone. How do I get rid of the duplicates? I'm guessing it has something to do with backing up from my old iPad plus syncing with iCloud? I reallllllly don't feel like going through 600 contacts and deleting them 1 by 1. That sucks.
 
I fixed it. If anyone else has this issue, turn off contacts in iCloud, delete contacts from iPad and then turn it back on. Should clear everything up.
 
I fixed it. If anyone else has this issue, turn off contacts in iCloud, delete contacts from iPad and then turn it back on. Should clear everything up.
I have all duplicate groups on my ipad it doesn't match what is on my macbook pro?

Turn off contact on your ipad? then delete contacts where?
 
Try PhoneBook CleanMaster

I have all duplicate groups on my ipad it doesn't match what is on my macbook pro?

Turn off contact on your ipad? then delete contacts where?

Thought to share an app which helped me to clear the duplicate contact problem with iOs5. It is called PhoneBook CleanMaster, try it, it should solve the problem in 5 minutes. The best part of it is that you have an option to examine detailed information of each contact before batch clean.
 
Try turning off contacts syncing with Yahoo

I was having the same problem with duplicates just on my iPad and figured out that all the multiple contacts were coming from my Yahoo address book. I have not tried to keep that address book synced with my phone or Mac, but I must have turned on the syncing with Yahoo when I set up the iPad. Of course, I do want my mail to sync with Yahoo, but that's it (if someone knows how to get my Yahoo contacts to only include the contacts on my Apple devices--please let me know!)

What I did to solve the duplicates on the iPad:
1) Turned off iCloud Contacts sync in Settings, confirm
2) Turned off the Yahoo contacts sync (Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Yahoo!--it then asks you to confirm deleting the contacts)
3) Turned iCloud Contacts sync back on
 
Try PhoneBook CleanMaster

I have all duplicate groups on my ipad it doesn't match what is on my macbook pro?

Turn off contact on your ipad? then delete contacts where?

There are many apps came out to help solve the duplication problem. Only a few actually work. Out of the few, PhoneBook CleanMaster works the best. The other all feel bit clumsy. PhoneBook CleanMaster has batch processing capability, but also allows to review the detailed information of each contact before the deletion. It can also batch merge contacts as well. It is straightforward and fast to use.
The link is at
http://itunes.apple.com/app/phonebook-cleanmaster/id458958568
 
Cleanmaster is the right tool

There are many apps came out to help solve the duplication problem. Only a few actually work. Out of the few, PhoneBook CleanMaster works the best. The other all feel bit clumsy. PhoneBook CleanMaster has batch processing capability, but also allows to review the detailed information of each contact before the deletion. It can also batch merge contacts as well. It is straightforward and fast to use.
The link is at
http://itunes.apple.com/app/phonebook-cleanmaster/id458958568

agreed! Helped me instantly. :)
 
iOS 5 contact sync ressurrects old data?

Not only are there contacts duplicated, but some of the contacts have old data out of some closet I didn't even know I had :confused: :eek: :mad:
 
Use Card > Duplicates on Mac

I have been wrestling with this issue with very little success -- in fact, the my duplicates seemed to be multiplying -- however came across the following solution which required no additional software and was very easy.

It's important to understand that iCloud is the master here -- everything goes in and out of iCloud. So, if you add a new contact on your phone, it's synched to iCloud and then distributed to your other devices. Likewise if you delete a contact. So the process is -- get all devices to have the same set of contacts, dedupe on address book, then sync all devices together. Here's the step by step.

1) Turn off contacts on your iPhone, iPad and Mac (Settings - > icloud -> Contacts). Do this one device at a time. This will leave iCloud as your only contact database (it's a good idea to get a backup from Address book first, just in case)

2) Turn contacts back on in Address book and each device, one by one, and let them resolve. You'll probably end up with duplicates everywhere -- thats OK. At this point every device will be in sync with iCloud

3) Open address book and go to Card -> Duplicates from the main menu. This will merge all duplicates (based on name) on your address book into single contacts. (you may need to do this more than once just to ensure everything is caught). What you will find is that Address book ends up clean, with one copy of everything that it can match.

4) iCloud will automatically update with the normalized list. This should automatically push to your devices, however just to accelerate the process I plugged each device in and synched it via itunes.

VIOLA. One copy, of everything everywhere!
 
3) Open address book and go to Card -> Duplicates from the main menu.

I don't have Card -> Duplicates on the menu. We're talking about OSX Address Book, right?

I am tearing my hair out trying to solve the duplicates problem. There are a bunch of apps that claim to deal with duplicates, and they are all garbage so far.

I asked in the iPhone Apps forum, but that apparently is a "write only" forum where app authors tout their apps and nobody answers questions. Amazing that nobody could suggest a de-duping app that actually works.
 
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