Over the years I’ve created a lot of contacts and due to merging and synching of data during that time, I sadly also have quite some duplicates.
I have an Office 365 Exchange account for my work. I have connected it to my Calendar app for awhile now and it has worked great on my iPhone and my two laptops. But today when I opened it, it had duplicated every event from my work calendar. When I go into my Outlook there are duplication there.
Does Outlook have an option to delete or merge these duplicate contacts?
Outlook does hold some basic de-duplicate techniques but they usually only apply at the time that you try to create a contact which already exists. However, with some creativity, you can still quickly dedupe or merge your contacts.
To do this, we use a little “Move, Export, Import and Move Back” trick. The process below might seem long and complicated but it can actually be achieved within only a few minutes.
Step 1: Move your contacts to a new Contacts folder
- Create a new Contacts folder by right clicking on your current Contacts folder and choosing “New Folder…”
In this example, the folder is called: Dedupe - Select all your contacts (CTRL+A).
- Move your Contacts from your Contacts folder to the Dedupe folder (CTRL+SHIFT+V)
Step 2: Export your contacts to a csv-file
- Start the “Import and Export” wizard of Outlook.
- Outlook 2007 and previous
File-> Import and Export… - Outlook 2010
File-> Open-> Import - Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
File-> Open & Export-> Import/Export
- Outlook 2007 and previous
- Select: Export to a File
- Select: Comma Separated Values (Windows)
- Select your Dedupe folder created in Step 1.
- Save the file to a convenient location.
In this example, we save the file to the Desktop and call itdedupe.csv
- Click Finish in the final screen of the Export wizard.
Step 3: Import your contacts from the csv-file
In this step, we’ll import the just exported csv-file to the emptied default Contacts folder.
Note: If you are using an Outlook.com account in Outlook 2013, please see the ”Special notice” section at the end of this article for alternative instructions.
- Start the “Import and Export” wizard of Outlook.
- Outlook 2007 and previous
File-> Import and Export… - Outlook 2010
File-> Open-> Import - Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
File-> Open & Export->
Import/Export
- Outlook 2007 and previous
- Select: Import from another program or file
- Select: Comma Separated Values (Windows)
- Browse to the exported file which you created in Step 2 (
dedupe.csv
). - Important! Select the option: Do not import duplicate items
- Select your main (currently empty) Contacts folder as the destination folder.
- Click Finish in the final screen of the Export wizard.
Step 4: Move back and merge your original contacts
- Select your Dedupe folder.
- Select all your contacts (CTRL+A).
- Move your Contacts from your Dedupe folder to the Contacts folder (CTRL+SHIFT+V).
- For each duplicate that is being encountered, you’ll get prompted and it will show a preview of which data will be added or updated.
- Choose Update to update the current duplicate contact.
- Choose Update All to automatically accept all changes for all duplicates.
- Choose Skip if you want to review this contact later; the original will remain in the Dedupe folder.
- Choose “Add new contact” if they are in fact not the same contact.
When updating an email address of a duplicate contact, the former address will be pushed to the “E-mail 2” field. (click on image to enlarge).
Note: Rather use a Duplicate Remover add-in after all? There are many to choose from.
Special notice: Outlook.com EAS account in Outlook 2013 and Outlook 2016
If you are using an Outlook.com account configured as an Exchange ActiveSync account (EAS) in Outlook 2013 or Outlook 2016, then you can’t import your contacts directly to the Outlook.com’s Contacts folder in Outlook.
Instead, go to the People hub on the Outlook.com website and use the “Import from file” link instead and select to import from: Microsoft Outlook (using CSV).
As an alternative, you can also create a Contacts folder in a pst-file or Exchange mailbox in Outlook for the Import procedure and then move them back to your Contacts folder of your Outlook.com account.
- If you do not have a pst-file or Exchange account connected to Outlook yet, create a pst-file via:
File-> Account Settings-> Account Settings-> tab: Data Files-> button: Add… - Switch to the Contacts Navigation (CTRL+3).
- Switch to the Folder tab and click: New Folder
- Create a new Contacts folder and make sure to create it in the pst-file or Exchange mailbox.
- Use Outlook’s Import procedure as instructed in Step 3 but of course import the csv-file into the newly created Contacts folder.
- After the import has completed, move the imported contacts from the Contacts folder created in the pst-file or Exchange mailbox into the Contacts folder of your Outlook.com account.
- Continue with Step 4.
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.
Easily merge duplicate contacts in specified contacts folder with Kutools for Outlook
Easily merge all duplicate contacts in specified contacts folder in Outlook:
Kutools for Outlook's Merge Duplicate Contacts utility can help you easily merge all duplicate contacts in specified contacts folder(s) in Outlook. See screenshot:
Kutools for Outlook: with more than 40 handy Outlook add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 45 days. Download and free trial Now!
Office Tab - Enable Tabbed Editing and Browsing in Office, and Make Work Much Easier...
Kutools for Outlook - Brings 100 Powerful Advanced Features to Microsoft Outlook
- Auto CC/BCC by rules when sending email; Auto Forward Multiple Emails by rules; Auto Reply without exchange server, and more automatic features...
- BCC Warning - show message when you try to reply all if your mail address is in the BCC list; Remind When Missing Attachments, and more remind features...
- Reply (All) With All Attachments in the mail conversation; Reply Many Emails at once; Auto Add Greeting when reply; Auto Add Date&Time into subject...
- Attachment Tools: Auto Detach, Compress All, Rename All, Auto Save All... Quick Report, Count Selected Mails, Remove Duplicate Mails and Contacts...
- More than100 advanced features will solve most of your problems in Outlook2010-2019 and 365. Full features60-day free trial.
Merge duplicate contacts in Outlook 2010, 2013 and 2016
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 contacts in 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 + A keys 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 OK button in the Move Items dialog box.
Step 6: If duplicate contacts exist, it will pop up the Duplicate Contact Detected dialog box. Just click the Update All button.
Then all contacts in A folder were moved to the B folder with all duplicate contacts merged.
Merge duplicate contacts 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 Options button.
Step 3: In the new Contact Options dialog box, check the option of Check for duplicate contacts in the Name and filing options for new contacts section.
Step 4: Click two OK buttons to close both dialog boxes.
Then you can follow the same steps as we introduced in the Outlook 2010 and 2013 to merge duplicate contacts when moving from one folder to another.
Easily merge duplicate contacts in specified contacts folder with Kutools for Outlook
Kutools for Excel : with more than 300 handy Excel add-ins, free to try with no limitation in 60 days.
To easily merge all duplicate contacts in specified contacts folder in Outlook, here I recommend you to use the Merge Duplicate Contacts utility of Kutools for Outlook. Please do as follows.
1. Click Kutools Plus > Duplicate Contacts to activate the feature. See screenshot:
2. In the Duplicate Contacts dialog box, please select a contacts folder or multiple contacts folders you will merge duplicates in:
3. In the Duplicate Contacts – Settings dialog box, you need to select Contacts fields for duplicate comparision.:
4. Select Merge duplicates in the next Duplicate Contacts – Settings dialog box and then click the Next button. See screenshot:
4. Select No backup in the Duplicate Contacts – Settings dialog box as below screenshot shown:
5. A Duplicate Contacts dialog box pops up with selected folders, fields and total duplicate contacts displaying inside, please click the Execute button to start merging the duplicate contacts. See screenshot:
Easily merge duplicate contacts in specified contacts folder with Kutools for Outlook
Kutools for Excel includes more than 300 handy Excel tools. Free to try with no limitation in 60 days. Download the free trial now!
Kutools for Outlook - Brings 100 Advanced Features to Outlook, and Make Work Much Easier!
- Auto CC/BCC by rules when sending email; Auto Forward Multiple Emails by custom; Auto Reply without exchange server, and more automatic features...
- BCC Warning - show message when you try to reply all if your mail address is in the BCC list; Remind When Missing Attachments, and more remind features...
- Reply (All) With All Attachments in the mail conversation; Reply Many Emails in seconds; Auto Add Greeting when reply; Add Date into subject...
- Attachment Tools: Manage All Attachments in All Mails, Auto Detach, Compress All, Rename All, Save All... Quick Report, Count Selected Mails...
- Powerful Junk Emails by custom; Remove Duplicate Mails and Contacts... Enable you to do smarter, faster and better in Outlook.
or post as a guest, but your post won't be published automatically.
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.
- 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.I followed the steps indicated above, but the duplicate contacts did not merge. In other words, no action took place.
- You actually need to copy then move... the instructions are wrong