Remove Duplicate Contacts

Main features

• Safely deletes duplicate contacts in one or more Outlook folders at once.
• Removes duplicate contacts in Outlook folders, including Search Folders, Shared Folders, and Exchange Server Public Folders.
• Clears up the same contacts in Exchange mailboxes and in PST files.
• Can move duplicate contacts to "Deleted Items" folder or the specified folder of your choice or delete duplicate contacts permanently.
• When moving duplicates to a folder, the entire structure of the original folder is created. You can put the moved contacts back to their original folders.
• When removing Outlook contacts, additional fields to compare duplicates can be specified. A contact that was created later will be considered a duplicate.
• Provides folder priority option to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook folders of your choice. The contacts remain in the high-priority folders and are deleted from low-priority folders.
• Can be started directly from Outlook. This allows you to eliminate duplicates among the selected contacts. You can create multiple configurations (for example, different contact folders or comparison fields) and run the required ones in one click.
• Provides a separate application to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook closed.
• Provides an application to deduplicate contacts from the command line.

What are the reasons for duplicate contacts in Outlook

Let's look at the most common reasons for duplicate contacts in Outlook profile.

Adding a new contact by dropping an email into the Contacts folder

This is a convenient and quick automatic way to create a new contact that many users use. But by doing so, it's easy to make a mistake and duplicate an existing contact.

Saving new data for an existing contact under a new name

Often, correspondents write to each other from a new email account or provide a new phone number. And then, they often save this contact information as a new contact instead of updating an existing one.

Synchronizing data

Synchronizing Outlook with other devices or importing contacts from other applications or web services is the major reason for duplicates. Different devices may save contact data using different fields. Or the same contact may be saved differently on various platforms. In these cases, the data is duplicated, and unnecessary entries appear in your address book.

Importing PST file into Outlook account

You may need to dedupe Outlook contacts after importing PST data file to your profile. If your backup PST contains the same contacts you have now, the duplicates occur.

How to remove and merge duplicate contacts in Outlook manually

You may use regular Outlook means to delete duplicates in your Address Book.

Way 1: Compare and remove duplicate Outlook contacts manually

This is the very first way that comes to mind. If there are few contacts, you can compare them one by one and delete unnecessary ones. This method only applies if you have a short list of contacts.

1. In the bottom left corner of the Outlook window, find the "People" icon and click on it.
2. On the View tab, select Change View > Phone. This is the most convenient tabular representation of contacts for visual comparison. It displays the entire list of contacts, along with fields by which you can sort them to make it easier to find duplicates.
3. After sorting by the desired fields, the duplicates will appear nearby, and you can quickly find and delete them.

Way 2: Using the Import/Export tool

If you have several repeated contacts, you can easily view and delete them manually. But if you have hundreds or thousands of duplicates, it can be nearly impossible to deal with them manually. The built-in Outlook tools will help you improve this process. With the Import/Export tool, you can move all contacts to a new folder, eliminating duplicates. After that, import the new file back into Outlook.

Always make a backup of your Address Book before starting the export to avoid a sudden data loss.

Step 1. Exporting Contacts

1. Click on People in the lower-left corner of the Outlook window.
2. Right-click on the "Contacts" folder in the My Contacts left-pane and select New Folder.
3. Enter the name of the new folder.
4. Go back to the original contact data folder, expand the contact list, select all using CTRL+A and drag them to the new folder.
5. Now, follow File > Open and Export > Import/Export.
6. Select Export to File from the list and click Next.
7. Then select Comma Separated Values and click Next.
8. Select the newly created "New folder" and click Next.
9. In the last step, click Browse to find the desired location to save the file, click Next and Done.

Step 2. Importing contacts back into Outlook

1. Go to File > Open and Export > Import/Export.
2. Select Import from another program or file from the list.
3. Choose Comma Separated Values.
4. Click Browse for the location where you saved the exported file. Check Do not import duplicate items in the Options section and click Next.
5. In the last step, select the default contacts folder as the destination for the import and click Next.
6. Confirm the action in the next window and click Finish.

Step 3. Combine Outlook contacts.

Now you can merge Outlook contact information that belongs to the same contacts but is separated into two or more different entries.

1. Open the newly created "New Folder" and move all contacts to the main "Contacts" folder to make it convenient for you.
2. Outlook will prompt you to update an existing contact or add a new one opening a data preview window if a duplicate is found.
3. Choose Update information of selected Contact to merge duplicate contacts. Select Add new contact if they are two different contacts.
4. To speed up the process, click Update All, and make changes automatically to all duplicate contacts.
5. To view any contact later, click Skip. The original contact will remain in the "New Folder".

Why deduplicate with the "Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook" utility?

The above-described process with the Import/Export tool is complicated and may result in mistakes and eliminate important contacts. Our Outlook duplicate contacts remover deletes duplicate contacts automatically and without effort. It is an easy way to deduplicate Outlook contacts and keep only unique and up-to-date data in the Address Book.

How to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook with the "Remove Duplicate Contacts" professional tool

The advanced version of software for Outlook contact cleanup is easy-to-use and provides flexible criteria to compare duplicates. Then, you can choose to delete them or move them to a folder.

1. Start the duplicate contacts remover from the Ribbon or standalone app.
2. Press Configure to select the folders to search duplicates in.
3. Compare duplicates by all fields as default or check Use custom fields to compare. If you choose this option, go to the Fields to compare tab to select the fields. Select the desired parameters for the contact comparison.
4. Then on the General tab, indicate a folder to move duplicates in or mark Delete duplicates permanently.
5. To clean up Outlook contacts in some folders that may contain duplicates and you have already determined the folder to keep the originals, select Search duplicates across folders. Set the high priority folders in the list. Put the folders of the highest priority on the top. Or use the low priority list to specify where the duplicates must be deleted in the first instance.
6. Run the utility and wait a few moments to get the results.

Keep in mind that you can save the settings for future use without configuring the utility again. You can also add the tool icon on the ReliefJet tab of the Outlook ribbon to start the deduplication in one click.

If you only want to check for duplicate contacts and mark them, use the Find duplicate contacts add-in.

How to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook in bulk or on schedule

By using the command line in batch files and in scripts, you can get rid of duplicate contacts from PST files, different mailboxes, and public folders in Outlook and Exchange Server and remove Outlook duplicate contacts on a scheduled basis. For example, you can delete duplicate contacts after migrating or merging folders and stores.

How to prevent creating duplicate Outlook contacts

To prevent duplicates in Outlook Address Book in the future, you just need to check some details.

Check 1

The first thing is to verify if the Check for duplicates when saving new contacts setting is on. Click on File > Options > People and enable the option.

Now, Outlook will monitor for duplicates and suggest merging entries with the same name or email address.

Check 2

If you noticed that duplicates appear after Outlook profile synchronization, start the Task Manager to control that only one outlook.exe is running. If you see more than one outlook.exe process in the list, close the duplicated ones by clicking the End task button. Now, you can continue the synchronization.

Check 3

When importing archived PST data file back into your profile or merging Outlook data files multiple times, we recommend using the Import PST to Outlook utility to detect duplicates immediately and determine further actions with them.

Helped by the preventive actions and using the "Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook" utility, duplicate contacts will be over for you.