Get rid of contact duplicates?

[jps1012]

I noticed today i have 5,000 contacts!! I have about 10 duplicates of each contact. How do I get rid of them? thanks!

 

[chargit]

you need to check your address book on your computer and see whats in it. is it as it should be or 10x?? if it is as it should be then go to iTunes, info, then check sync with whatever address book you are using. it should show merge, or replace. check replace. this will put all of the contacts in your address book on your computer onto the iPhone replacing the 10x. but make sure all of the contacts on the phone are also in the backup so you dont lose any that have been added lately.

 

[jps1012]

you need to check your address book on your computer and see whats in it. is it as it should be or 10x?? if it is as it should be then go to iTunes, info, then check sync with whatever address book you are using. it should show merge, or replace. check replace. this will put all of the contacts in your address book on your computer onto the iPhone replacing the 10x. but make sure all of the contacts on the phone are also in the backup so you dont lose any that have been added lately.

Thanks a lot! I will try it.

 

[0970373]

If you have a Mac, go into Address Book > Card > Look for Duplicates > it will then ask you if you want to merge the duplicates.

 

[PaperQueen]

Need to resurrect this thread

Help. As of today, I suddenly have 4,507 contacts in my Address Book (5.0.3). I also have two, three, or four copies of all groups in Address Book. Yippee.

As someone who detests MobileMe, that was pulled out of the equation over a month ago (it destroyed iCal). Can't be MM.

MBP is running 10.6.6
iPhone (Verizon) is running 4.2.6
iPad is running 4.3
The only sync set up is via iTunes. No more MM (ever ever ever again).

At first, thought the iPad update this morning was the culprit...then I checked my Contacts list on the phone and found a ton of duplicates there too. Had to have occurred in my last iPhone tethered sync, approximately one week ago, before I went out of town for work.

I tried Address Book > Cards > Look for Duplicates (with all contacts selected), but no joy. Only knocked out about 15% of them, plus it piles 2x and 3x the phone entries per card on top of each other. What used to be a single card with three phone numbers is now four cards...merging turns it into one card with twelve phone numbers.

Help. 😱

 

[Carlanga]

...

I tried Address Book > Cards > Look for Duplicates (with all contacts selected), but no joy. Only knocked out about 15% of them, plus it piles 2x and 3x the phone entries per card on top of each other. What used to be a single card with three phone numbers is now four cards...merging turns it into one card with twelve phone numbers.

Help. 😱

Then you might have various contact lists and you are showing all of them on your phone; to check go to the Contact app on the iPhone and check if on the top left side you have a bar that says 'Groups' click on it; then you can see which specific contact list or all your contact list you are showing and select the appropriate one.

 

[PaperQueen]

Then you might have various contact lists and you are showing all of them on your phone; to check go to the Contact app on the iPhone and check if on the top left side you have a bar that says 'Groups' click on it; then you can see which specific contact list or all your contact list you are showing and select the appropriate one.

Actually, every single contact group, every single contact, is duplicated on the iPhone, on the iPad, and on the MacBook Pro. The problem appears to have been triggered by the most recent iPad update. My best guess is that it created the duplicates on my laptop, which then only ballooned when I next did a sync with the phone.

As mentioned earlier, MobileMe is *not* part of the equation. I turned that off on all devices and the laptop a few weeks ago. This has to have been triggered by an OS update--the most recent being the one on the iPad.

Anyone else...? And how the h*** am I going to get this fixed? Will take me a month to sort through nearly 5,000 entries.