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Verified Solution to Merge Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

Duplicate contacts in your Outlook contacts list can cause issues while sending and receiving emails. In this article, we will discuss some techniques to combine or merge duplicate contacts in Outlook. Additionally, we will suggest a quick and reliable solution to combine duplicate contacts in Outlook. This advanced software can easily cleanup duplicate contacts.

Microsoft Outlook is an email client that is used in many businesses and at home to communicate and manage tasks. Users of Outlook can create multiple accounts, calendars, and contact folders. In Outlook they want to combine their contact folders into one to make access and management easier. We have the best free solution to merge contacts folders in Outlook 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 to make this task easier for users.

In addition, for deleting duplicate contacts, merging them is a good way to deal with them. By merging duplicate contacts, you can clean up your contact list and manage it more efficiently. You won’t lose any contact details or information in this way. In this article, you will learn how to use Outlook options to merge duplicate contacts in Outlook 2010 and duplicate contacts in Outlook 2016. Additionally, a third-party tool to clean up and organize duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Also, you can merge PST files using this advanced tool. 

Causes of Duplicate Contacts

Duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook can occur for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Contacts are imported from a variety of sources.
  • While importing a PST file that contains contacts from your Outlook Contacts list.
  • Drag and drop the emails into the contacts folder.
  • Using a single Outlook client to manage multiple email accounts or mailboxes.
  • At the time of using Outlook mobile app or integrating social media accounts.

Method 1: Manual Way to Merge Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

  • Open Outlook and go to the People tab.
  • In the Manage View, click the Phone tab under the Home menu.
  • Hold down the CTRL key to merge all the duplicate contacts.
  • After selecting the duplicate contacts, you need to press the Delete button.
  • To get rid of the duplicate contacts in Outlook, confirm the deletion.

Note: If you have a large number of contacts in your contact list, this method is not recommended, as it is a time-consuming method.

Method 2: Use Export and Re-Import Contacts Technique

You can export all of your contacts to CSV format, then filter or merge duplicate contacts in Outlook before importing them back into Outlook. The following are the detailed steps:

Part 1: Export Contacts to CSV

  • Open Outlook and go to the People tab.
  • Here, select the New Folder from the context menu that contains all of your contacts.
  • Choose a name for this new folder, such as Duplicate Contacts, and then click on the main Contacts folder.
  • To select all contacts in the main contacts folder, press CTRL+A on your keyboard.
  • Duplicate contacts are created by dragging and dropping contacts from the main contacts folder to the duplicate contacts folder.
  • To move contacts from the main Contacts folder to the Duplicate Contacts folder, right-click and select Move > Duplicate Contacts.
  • The main Contacts folder will be empty when you move contacts to the Duplicate Contacts folder.
  • To open the Outlook Import/Export wizard, go to File > Import & Export and click Import/Export.
  • Click Next after selecting the option to export to a file.
  • Select the comma-separated values and then click on the Next button.
  • Here you need to choose the duplicate contacts folder and hit the Next button.
  • Finally, choose a location to save the CSV file and then tap on the Next button >> Finish.

After completing the first step, you need to import contacts into Outlook to merge duplicate contacts in Outlook.

Part 2: Import Contacts into Outlook

  • Firstly, go to the file section >> Import & Export and tap on Import & Export.
  • Then, select the import from another program and click on the Next button.
  • After that, choose comma-separated values and hit the Next button.
  • Here, choose the CSV file (created in Step 1) and do not import duplicate items. After that, tap on the Next button.
  • Choose the main contacts folder and tap on the Next button >> Finish.

Part 3: Move Contacts from Duplicate Contacts to Main Contacts Folder

  • Using CTRL+A, select all of the contacts in the Duplicate Contacts folder.
  • To move contacts from the Duplicate Contacts folders to the main Contacts list, right-click or drag them from the Duplicate Contacts folders.
  • You’ll be prompted if there are any duplicate contacts.
  • For all duplicate contacts, select Update Information of Selected Contact and then Update or Update All.
  • You can delete the duplicate contacts once they’ve been moved to the main Contacts folder.

We have discussed two manual methods to combine duplicate contacts in Outlook. These methods are very lengthy and time-consuming. Also, if you have less technical knowledge, in that case, you cannot efficiently execute these methods. But if you want to overcome these drawbacks, then you can choose a professional way to merge Outlook duplicate contacts.

Professional Way to Merge Duplicate Contacts in Outlook

If you tried the manual solution and faced any problems, then you can use the best alternate automated tools to merge duplicate contacts. Here we will recommend the Cigati PST Merge Tool, which is the most secure and reliable tool for Outlook merge contacts. This tool has many advanced features, like removing all the attachment files and removing duplicate emails. Additionally, you can also combine all the PST email items like contacts, calendars, notes, tasks, journals, etc. The PST merger tool has an option to protect the PST file by applying a password. This advanced tool works on the latest technology that helps to maintain data integrity.

Conclusion

We have discussed the top methods to merge duplicate contacts in Outlook. You can choose anyone from all of them. But manual methods are difficult to execute, and their processes are complicated and time-consuming. Therefore, we will provide the most professional way that is the most secure and reliable. This tool comes with a user-friendly interface. That’s why non-technical users can easily run this tool.

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