Delete Duplicate Contact List in Outlook – GetTwo Solutions Here
Quick Summary: If you are an Outlook user and unfortunately got stuck with a duplicate contact list in Outlook. Then, don’t worry, just stay tuned to the article till the end to find different techniques to remove duplicate contacts from your Outlook account.
Usually, when it comes to choosing a professional email client, Microsoft Outlook is the only choice of most organizations. From smoothly sending/receiving emails to managing important contacts, keeping journals to scheduling events, all can be done in one place.
However, it’s found that for certain reasons some contacts in Outlook get duplicated. Above all, these duplicate contacts not only take up unnecessary space but also create confusion while managing other important contacts.
Apparently, many users are facing the same issue of duplicate contacts. To help them sort out the problem, this write-up will discuss 3 different ways to delete/remove duplicate contact lists in Outlook.
But, before discussing the methods, let’s know the reasons for getting identical contacts.
How Do You Get Duplicate Contacts in Outlook?
There are three possible reasons for getting repeated contacts.
- If you import contacts from various sources then you will likely get duplicate contacts.
- While importing PST files containing contacts, if you forget to click on the ‘Do not import duplicate items’ then also your contacts will appear more than once.
- When you synchronize Outlook with other devices or import contacts from other applications, then duplicate contacts get created.
Now, let’s move forward and have a look at various solutions for removing repeated contacts.
Different Methods to Delete Duplicate Contact List in Outlook
There are 2 manual methods and 1 automated method available for this job.
The manual approaches are in-house solutions offered by Microsoft itself. On the other hand, the automated method involves the Tried and Tested Outlook Duplicate Remover Software.
Let’s discuss them one by one in detail.
Method 1: Delete Duplicate Contact List in Outlook One At a Time
This is one of the manual methods you can use when you have a couple of duplicate contacts. The steps go like this;
1. Open Outlook and click on People.
2. On the Ribbon, in the Current View section, click the bottom right corner of the views box and then click Phone.
3 This is so far the easiest view to use for scanning your contacts list and seeing the duplicates.
4. In the list of your contacts, hold the Ctrl key and click on each contact you want to remove.
5. Once you’ve selected all the duplicate contacts, click on Delete or simply use the shortcut Ctrl+D.
Limitation: This process can be quite tedious and time-consuming if you have a large number of duplicate contacts to delete. Besides, there can be a chance of accidental deletion of important contacts.
Method 2: Delete Duplicate Contacts Using Export and Import Option
This is also a manual approach you can refer to for deleting a large number of duplicated contacts in Outlook.
It will be accomplished in 2 steps
Step-1: Export your contacts in PST
Step-2: Import them back into Outlook
Let’s discuss them in detail.
Export Process of Outlook Contacts
1. Open Outlook and click People.
2. Select the People icon to see your contacts then, right-click on your current Contacts folder and select New Folder.
3. After creating a new contacts folder, give your new folder a name, for example, Duplicates.
4. Go back to your main Contacts folder, and press Ctrl+A to select all of your contacts.
5. You can use either drag and drop your contacts into the Duplicates folder or use Ctrl+Shift+V to open the Move to Folder dialog and select your Duplicates folder.
6. After that, Select File > Open & Export > Import/Export.
7. Then, Select Export to a File.
8. Select Comma Separated Values (Windows), then Select the Duplicates folder you created in Step 3.
9. Next, export from your Duplicates folder and save the file at a location where you’ll be able to find it again.
10. At last, press Finish.
Import Back into Outlook
1. Go to File, then Open & Export >> click on Import/Export.
2. Select Import from another program or file. Then, choose Comma Separated Values (Windows).
3. Browse to find the file you created and saved in the procedure above.
4. Select the file that you want to import and choose the option Do not import duplicate items.
5. Next, choose your main contacts folder as the destination folder( the empty one).
6. At last, click on Finish.
Note: After the above process, once again you need to Copy The Contacts From The Duplicates Folder back to Main Folder
Limitation: The major drawback of this method is the lengthy procedure itself. Further, one must have proper knowledge of handling the Export/Import wizard to accurately execute the complete steps without any errors.
Method 3: Automatically Delete Duplicate Contact List in Outlook
Just like the heading suggests, this method is entirely automated. As mentioned earlier, this method utilizes trustworthy software i.e. Outlook Duplicate Remover which is designed to deal with duplicates in Outlook. Be it emails, contacts, calendars, tasks, journals, etc, if there is any duplicate content this tool removes it all.
Let’s have a look at the working steps of the tool.
1. Download the software and launch it on your computer.
2. Add the PST files through Add File(s) or Add Folder.
3. After adding the file, choose an option, whether you want to remove duplicates Within Folders or Across Folder.
4. Select the destination path for saving the resultant de-duplication file.
5. Then, the item types you want to delete. In this case, select the ‘Contacts’ checkbox and apply Date Filter (if required).
Note: You can ‘Specify duplicate criteria’ by choosing further options.
6. After that, choose actions, split PST file size, and click Next.
7. Finally, click on OK to complete the task.
As you can see, the above procedure is simple and quick. Any user(both naive and expert) can easily carry out the process without any technical difficulties.
Also Read: Why Outlook is Downloading Duplicate Emails?
Note: This process will export files in PST format after removing the duplicates. If you want them in your Outlook import them back using the Import/Export wizard.
Conclusion
Duplicate contacts are not a great thing to have in your account and sometimes it feels like you are stuck with them forever. However, this is not a permanent problem and there are solutions available to delete repeated contacts. In this article, we’ve explained 3 different ways to delete duplicate contact list in Outlook that you can refer to.
