Outlook

How to Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook – Recommended Solutions

Microsoft Outlook is the first choice of users because of its various features like emailing, calendaring, contact management, and so on. At times, users face the problem of duplicate contacts in Outlook and want to remove them for more space. Therefore, in this blog, we will explain some simple methods to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook.

So, keep reading this blog post to get the complete and appropriate solution to fix the remove duplicate contacts in Outlook issue.

Table of Content

• Reason to Why Duplicate Contacts are Created in Outlook
• Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook at a Time
• Delete Multiple Duplicate Contacts in Outlook Using Export & Import
• Import Contacts Back Into Microsoft Outlook
• Get Back Contacts From The New Folder Created to Main Contacts Folder
• Instant Solution to Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook
• Last Verdict
• FAQS

Reasons Why Duplicate Contacts are Created in Outlook?

• If a user uses different email accounts with the same name, a new contact is created for the same person.
• When you synchronize the Outlook contacts with your laptop, mobile devices, or some social platforms it causes the creation of duplicate contacts.
• When the e-mail messages are dragged to the Contacts folder, a new contact is automatically created in Outlook.
• Users may inadvertently generate a new contact instead of updating an existing one or enter contact details with slight variations.
• If users are using MS Outlook across several devices or syncing it with other email services such as Gmail or iCloud, synchronization problems can lead to duplicate contacts.

User Query – How to Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

“I have over 3000 contacts in my Outlook and there are multiple duplicates. Now, I would like to delete all my duplicate contacts from my Outlook address book. I have tried a manual solution to do so but fails. My Outlook is hanging while performing this task. So I won’t try it again. Now I need an easy and quick way to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook 2016.”

Quick Tool Tip – If you are looking for a solution to combine and remove duplicate Outlook contacts, try PST Merge software. It will allow merging Outlook contacts and deleting duplicates without damaging any data. It can Merge Multiple Archive PST Files.

Manual Ways to Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

Here we are going to describe the step-by-step manual process to delete double contacts in Outlook 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010 one by one.

#Method 1. Remove Duplicate Contacts in Outlook at a Time

• Open Outlook and click People

• In the Current View group, click the right corner of the views box and then click on Phone

Note: You can easily use this method to scan contacts to find duplicates.

• In the contacts list, hold the Ctrl key and select the duplicate contacts want to delete then press Delete

#Method 2. Delete Multiple Duplicate Contacts in Outlook Using Export & Import

Removing duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook one by one is lengthy and time-consuming. Therefore, the fastest and easiest way is to export them to a file, and then import them into a new folder.

• Launch Outlook and click People.
• Right-click Contacts under My Contacts and select New Folder.

• Give the name of your new folder like “Remove Duplicates”

• Click back to the main Contact folder.
• Press Ctrl+A to select all contacts.
• Drag and drop the contacts into the Remove Duplicates folder. When you drag and drop contacts into a new folder, the main Contacts folder becomes empty.

• Now, click File >> Open & Export >> Import/Export.

• Choose the option of Export to a file and hit the Next button.

• Choose Comma Separated Values and again click Next.

• Select the Remove Duplicates folder and press Next.

• Click browse select the desired location to save the CSV file and hit the Finish button.

#Method 4. Import Contacts Back Into Microsoft Outlook

• Select File >> Open & Export >> Import/Export.
• Choose Import from another program or file and then select Comma Separated Values.
• Press the Browse button and select the exported file. Under the Options, choose “Do not import duplicates” and click Next.
• Choose your main contacts folder as the destination folder and hit the Finish button.

#Method 5. Get Back Contacts From The New Folder Created to Main Contacts Folder

If you ever get a duplicate again, you will see a pop-up with two options:

1. Select “Add new contact” if the contact is not a duplicate.
2. Select “Update information of selected contact” if the contact is a duplicate.
3. After selecting the required option, click on Update. Click on the Update All option if you want to repeat the same selection for all duplicate contacts.

Note- When the procedure is finished, you can Remove Duplicates folder.

This is the complete process to remove duplicate Outlook contacts in Outlook manually. This method is very lengthy and confusing. If you are not satisfied with the manual approach you easily choose an expert solution to simplify the task.

#Method 6. Instant Solution to Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

To simply and accurately combine or remove duplicate contacts in Outlook, you can use the Outlook Duplicate Remove tool. This software is capable of removing duplicate Outlook contacts without losing a bit of data integrity of your Outlook contacts.

Not only does It help to delete duplicate contacts but also helps to eliminate duplicate emails in Outlook. With the help of this application, you can combine unlimited contacts from Outlook without duplicates. It is compatible with all Outlook Versions such as 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, etc., and also works on Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, etc.

Quick Steps to Delete Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

• Step 1. First, download the software and open it.
• Step 2. Click on the Add File(s) or Add Folder to add the PST file.
• Step 3. Choose the Within Folder(s) or Across Folder(s) option and click on the Next button.
• Step 4. Select the Contacts option from the Select filter and duplicate criteria option.
• Step 5. After applying all settings click on the  Next button to start the process and once the process is over click on the OK button to complete the task.

Conclusion

In the above blog, we explained step by step how to delete duplicate contacts in Outlook. Here, we have also discussed the manual solution to remove duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook. You can choose any method according to your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions