How to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook in 4 Simple Ways
Having duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook can lead to confusion, which can make your address book look cluttered and create synchronisation issues on multiple devices. Whether you have personal emails or maintain a professional network, it is important to keep your contact list clean and organised. In this guide, we will examine the 4 best ways on how to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook, merge and avoid them.
Why Do Duplicate Contacts Appear in Outlook?
Before we get into the solutions, let’s understand why these duplicate contacts come up in Outlook:
- Importing the Same Contacts Multiple Times
If Do not import duplicates option is enabled, then customers might import contacts from CSV, PST or VCF files more than once, which can cause Outlook to create duplicates for each import.
- Synchronising Outlook with Multiple Services at the Same Time
When Outlook is connected to iCloud, Google Contacts, Microsoft Exchange, or other third-party services, your contacts will sync from these with different locations. Each of these locations may change contact information, and Outlook will treat it as a new contact, causing duplication.
- Adding the Same Contact Manually Multiple Times
Sometimes, a user could forget that a contact already existed and add a new contact manually. But Outlook doesn’t notify users of duplicate entries in Outlook, which leads to the problem of duplicacy of contacts in Outlook’s address book.
- Third-Party Applications Adding Contacts
Some CRM programs, email marketing tools and contact management software that integrate with Outlook will sync contact information. If the software has bad configurations or aggressive syncing rules to sync contacts, it can surely create duplicates of the same contact.
No worries, let’s walk through the quick ways to eliminate duplicate Contacts in Outlook.
5 Proven Steps to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook
Here are some ways to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook, which include both free manual and an automated method:
- Manually Review and Delete Duplicate Contacts
- Use the Export and Import with Excel Method
- Use Outlook’s Built-in Merge Feature
- Use a Professional Automated Tool
Let’s understand these easiest ways in brief:
#1 Manually Review and Delete Duplicate Contacts
It is one of most basic methods to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook. Steps given below:
Steps to Use:
- Open Outlook and navigate to People/Contact view.
- Sort contacts by email address, full name, etc.
- Manually scan and identify duplicate contacts.
- Choose those duplicates that you don’t want and delete them manually.
Pros:
- No installment of other additional tools are required to eliminate duplicate Contacts in Outlook.
- It gives full control over what gets deleted.
Cons:
- It is very time-taking process to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook manually.
- Not feasible for deleting on a large contact address book.
#2 Use the Export and Import with Excel Method
If you’re working on multiple lists, then you can remove duplicate contacts in Outlook in bulk using the Excel remove duplicate feature:
Steps to Use:
- Export contact list from Outlook in .CSV file.
- Use remove duplicate feature to eliminate duplicate contacts in CSV file.
- You can save output file and import it again into Outlook.
Pros:
- It is a great solution if you’re working on large lists.
- Excel allows users to use sorting and filtering options to make it easier.
Cons:
- Before using this it should required some technical skills.
- It might cause a formatting error if it’s not done in a proper manner.
#3 Use Outlook’s Built-in Merge Feature
Sometimes when you’re importing contact list and try to merge duplicate contacts in Outlook, this method comes in use:
Step to Use:
- Navigate to file, choose open & import, then export or import.
- Select the imported file which consists of a duplicate contact list.
- Then, you can choose Merge Option.
Pros:
- It is very easy and comfortable to use.
- Maintains contact details for each in one entry.
Cons:
- It doesn’t provide 100% accuracy.
- This method only works when the user is importing.
#4 Use Best Automated Tool to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook
To know how to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook quickly and with accurate results, use SysTools Outlook Duplicate Remover to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook, which automatically scans duplicate entries in lists and removes them from your address book data.
It allows users to use filters in specific fields of list, like name, email address, or phone number. Let’s know more features of this professional method:
Benefits to Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook with Duplicate Contacts Clearing Utility
- This automated tool can easily support large data files.
- It can Remove Duplicate Contacts from Outlook in no time.
- You can choose specific criteria to delete duplicate contacts from address lists.
- It ensures that the data which is being eliminated that should done so with full accuracy.
- It also keeps the original data intact, which maintains integrity.
- Contacts remover has a user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for users to use.
Steps to Eliminate Duplicate Contacts in Outlook Using by Automated Tool
Steps to Use:
1. Download and run the SysTools Outlook Similar Contacts Removal Tool.
2. Click Add File or Folder to open your Outlook-supported files.
3. It provides users with an option to add files within folder or across folder.
4. You can choose any Location to save the cleaned file.
5. In select item types, choose Contacts option to eliminate duplicates.
6. Click Specific Duplicate Criteria such as name, email address, phone number, etc.
7. Click OK to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook.
Bonus Tip to Prevent Duplication Contacts in Outlook
Prevention is way more better instead of getting duplicate contacts in address book, you can prevent them by following these steps:
- You should avoid syncing outlook contacts with different devices simultaneously
- Every user should check their contacts list status regularly and remove duplicate contacts in outlook.
- Disable the auto-syncing feature which might be duplicating concats by accepting invites.
- Avoid importing the outlook’s contact lists into .csv file again & again.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve shared top 4 best ways to remove duplicate contacts in outlook, with manual steps to using excel, built-in feature in outlook, to using professional tool. We also covered tips to prevent duplicate contacts in future. Choose the methods as per your need, if you’re working on large data then you should opt for dedicated automated tool which is suggested above which help you in saving time, lessen the risk of deletion of any important data, etc. Also, never forget to take backup of your outlook data before eliminating the duplicates.
FAQs on How to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook
Q.1 How can I Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook Automatically?
A. Yes, you can eliminate duplicate contacts in Outlook by using suggested tool in above article.
Q.2 Can I Restore Deleted Contacts?
A. You can if you’ve taken a backup before removing duplicate contacts.
Q.3 How to Remove Duplicate Contacts Outlook Mac?
A. You can use Outlook’s search and sort feature to do manually or you can use dedicated method mentioned above, both supports Outlook Mac.