How to Merge Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

The most preferred email client available to date is Microsoft Outlook. Be it an organization or a small scale business, Outlook is the number one choice. Its assorted features increase the merits. One such feature of Outlook is Contacts. You can easily save the contacts in Outlook directly or by importing from other external sources like iCloud or Gmail.
When you try to import contacts from Gmail or iCloud, then Outlook checks for the duplicate contacts and if present then it asks which one you want to save. But if the contacts are already present in the Outlook, then the only way is to manually check each and every contact and then deleting it. You can also take the help of some professional tools which could merge duplicates Contacts in Outlook.

Manual approach to merge duplicates Contacts in Outlook

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. In this way, you can take advantage of the built-in feature to check for the duplicate contacts.

Steps to Deleting the contacts one by one

1. Open Microsoft Outlook
2. Click on the People tab
3. In the Current View group, choose Phone option
4. In the shown list, select the contacts of your choice using a mouse and CTRL key
5. After selecting all the duplicate contacts, press the CTRL+D key
6. This will delete the contacts one by one

Steps to Deleting the contacts all at once

• Open Microsoft Outlook
• Click on the People tab
• Right-click on the Contacts folder and then click on the new folder option from the drop-down menu and give any name to the folder
• Now go to the main contacts folder
• Press CTRL+A key to select the contacts
• Drag and drop your contacts to the new folder i.e. duplicate folder
• Next, go to the File menu and then click on Open & Export
• Now, click on the Import/Export button
• Choose export to a file and then select Comma Separated Values(Windows)
• Choose the duplicate folder that was created
• You can then save the file according to the choice
• Now click on the Finish button

Steps to Import Contacts in the Outlook

1. Go to the File menu and then click on the Open & Export option
2. Now click on the Import/Export button
3. Choose Import from another program or file and then select Comma Separated Values(Windows)
4. Now, browse to the location where you saved the file
5. In the options, select Do not import duplicate items
6. Next, choose the main contacts folder as a destination and then click on the Finish button

Steps to merge duplicates Contacts in Outlook using third- party software

1. Install and launch Outlook Contacts Merge Software
2. Now, click on the Add PST files button to choose many PST files
3. In the next window, under select merge options choose to merge Contacts options and check the options Remove Duplicates & Exclude Deleted Items
4. Give the Output location where you want to save the file. You can also apply a password in the same step
5. Now, all the selected contacts will be merged and duplicates will be removed during the process
6. After the completion of the process, close the application

Benefits of Third-Party Software

For a quick and effective merging of contacts without any additional duplicates, you can use professional third- party software known as PST Merge Tool. This software specializes in merging multiple Microsoft Outlook PST files into a single file. It also merges all the data items of Outlook like contacts, emails, calendar, etc. It also maintains the hierarchy of the files after joining. Few other features of Aryson PST Merge Software are as follows:

1. Merge two or more PST files into a single pst file
2. Join single or multiple PST file to an existing PST file
3. Merge multiple Outlook pst files to an existing PST file
4. Combine two or more Active Outlook files, network PST files, and archive Outlook pst files
5. Merge multiple PST files with different options such as merge in new PST file, merge in existing PST file, and merge in Existing Outlook profile
6. Available three options for merging such as Merge PST, Join PST and Merge Contacts
7. Compatible with all versions of MS Outlook, therefore merges two or more pst files of Outlook 2019, 2013, 2016, 2010 and below versions
8. It allows you to delete duplicate email items before merging PST files
9. Maintain data integrity and folder hierarchy after the merging of multiple PST files
10. Supports to join & merge of ANSI and Unicode PST files
11. Allow users to combine PST files containing contacts, emails, journals, tasks, and calendars
12. Let the user can add a password in the newly created PST files after merging
13. Supports to merge Outlook PST files on all Microsoft Windows versions such as Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 10, 7, 8, 8.1, 10

Conclusion

Duplicate contacts create unnecessary problems like storage full, unexpected shutdown, etc. To manage such problems, the above article provides deep insight on how to merge duplicates contact in Outlook using manual and automated approach. Try both the methods and decide on the one you like better. Goodluck.

About The Author:

Rohan Wiese

Rohan Wiese is a Technical Writer at Aryson Technologies. He is an expert Email Forensic, Cloud Computing, and a passionate nerd with over 10 years of experience in technical content writing. He writes about Cloud Migration, Database Recovery, Email Backup, Windows, Mac, and Tech.

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