1- create a contact folder that has no duplicates call it say (IPhoneContacts) 2- Turn on option to replace Iphone contact list (for one sync 3- Turn on option to sync with selected groups. Sync with the IphoneContacts group you made. There are numerous ways to merge duplicates Contacts in Outlook. If you have fewer contacts then you can manually select each duplicate contact and delete it or the other method is to select the contacts all at once. Another method described in great detail below is to export the contacts file and then re-import it.

How to merge duplicate contacts in Outlook?

When we copy/move contacts from one folder to another in Outlook, duplicate contacts will very likely come out. Removing the duplicate contacts may not be the better way, because one contact may contain fields that the other duplicate one leaving as blank. As a result, some user think of merging duplicates. In this article, I will show you how to merge duplicate contacts in Outlook.

Merge duplicate contacts during moving in Outlook 2010 or a later version
Merge duplicate contacts during moving in Outlook 2007
Easily merge existing duplicate contacts in specified contacts folders with Kutools for Outlook

Merge duplicate contacts during moving in Outlook 2010 or a later version

Let’s say you will move all contacts from A folder to B folder in Outlook. To merge duplicate contacts during moving, you can do as following.

Step 1: Click the File> Options.

Step 2: In the Outlook Options dialog box, click the People(or Contacts) in the left bar, then check the option of Check for duplicates when saving new contactsin the Names and filling section.

Step 3: Click the OK button to close the Outlook Options dialog box.

Step 4: Shift to the People view (or Contacts) view, open the A folder in the Navigation Pane, select one contact in the folder, and then select all contacts with clicking the Ctrl +Akeys in a meanwhile.

Step 5: Right click the selected contacts, and then click the Move > B folder from the right-clicking menu. See screen shot below:

Note: If the destination folder is not listing in the right-clicking menu, just click the Move> Other Folder from the right-clicking menu, and then specify the destination folder and click OKbutton in the Move Items dialog box.

How To Merge Contacts

Step 6: If duplicate contacts exist, it will pop up the Duplicate Contact Detected dialog box. Just click the Update Allbutton.

Then all contacts in A folder were moved to the B folder with all duplicate contacts merged.

Merge duplicate contacts during moving in Outlook 2007

In Outlook 2007, if you want to merge duplicate contacts when moving from one folder to the other, you also need to enable the option of Check for duplicate contacts.

Step 1: Click the Tools> Options.

Step 2: In the opening Options dialog box, click the Contact Optionsbutton.

Step 3: In the new Contact Options dialog box, check the option of Check for duplicate contactsin the Name and filing options for new contactssection.

Step 4: Click two OKbuttons to close both dialog boxes.

Then you can follow the same steps as we introduced in the Outlook 2010 or a later version to merge duplicate contacts when moving from one folder to another.

Easily merge existing duplicate contacts in specified contacts folders with Kutools for Outlook

To easily merge all existing duplicate contacts in specified contacts folders in Outlook, here I recommend the Merge Duplicate Contacts utility of Kutools for Outlook. Please do as follows to get it done.

1. Click Kutools> Delete Duplicate> Duplicate Contacts to enable this feature.

Note:If there are multiple email accounts with large contacts folders in your Outlook, a loading contacts folder(s) window will pop up. You can skip the current loading email account to increase the loading speed based on your needs, or just wait until all contacts folders are finish loading.

2. After finishing loading contacts folders, the Duplicate Contacts – Step 1(of 4) wizard pops up. Please check the Contacts folder(s) containing duplicate contacts you will merge, and then click the Next: Select contacts fields for duplicate comparison button.

Tips:

• 1. When selecting folders, you can right click the folder list for more quick options as the above screenshot shown.
• 2. All selected folders are listed in the right box, you can delete, sort them as you need. And the contacts list in the above folder will be priority to be retained when handling duplicates.

3. In the Please select Contacts fields for duplicate comparison box of the Duplicate Contacts – Step 2(of 4) wizard, please select contacts fields to filter duplicate contacts, and then click the Next: Select the fields to be listed in results button.

Note: If you check the Search all duplicates in selected Contacts folders option, the duplicate contacts within all selected folders will be searched. Otherwise, the duplicates will be searched in their own contacts folder separately.

4. In the Duplicate Contacts – Step 3(of 4) wizard, specify the fields to be listed in the results box, and then click theStart filtering button.

5. In the Duplicate Contacts – step 4(of 4) wizard, please configure as follows.

• 5.1) Expand a group, you can click a duplicate contact to preview its information in the Contact information preview box;
• 5.2) In the How to deal with the duplicate contacts? drop-down list, select the Merge option;
• 5.3) Click the Merge button to start merging duplicate contacts.

6. Click OK in the popping up Kutools for Outlook dialog box.

Now all duplicate contacts in specified folders are merged. You can see the handled duplicate contacts are marked with a strikethrough in the Result list. Please close the Duplicate Contacts wizard to end the process.

Notes

If you want to have a free trial ( 60-day) of this utility, please click to download it, and then go to apply the operation according above steps.

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Apple Contacts Duplicates

• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  I started with 4 contact records for the same contact. Following these instructions I now have 11. This does not work! DO NOT USE THIS
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  Have to move to folder, then back again. Merge popup initiates on the second move.
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  @Nicole Hoevertsz You actually need to copy then move... the instructions are wrong
• To post as a guest, your comment is unpublished.
  I followed the steps indicated above, but the duplicate contacts did not merge. In other words, no action took place.