If you have an iPhone, there’s a good chance that you have duplicate contacts. This is because your phone has a built-in feature called “duplicate contacts.” When you add a new contact to your phone, it will create a new duplicate of the contact in your address book. If you have more than one address book on your iPhone, then each address book will have its own copy of the duplicate contact. To merge the duplicates into one contact, follow these steps:
- Open the Address Book app on your iPhone and select the " Duplicate Contacts" option from the top left corner of the screen.
- Select the “New” button next to the “Duplicate Contacts” field and enter an information about how you want to merge them. For example, you could choose to merge them into one contact or create separate contacts for each address book account.
- Click on the “Merge” button and wait for the process to finish. The merged duplicates will be added to your new contact in your address book!
Find Your Duplicate Contacts
Duplicate contacts are now listed in your main contacts list, accessible using the Phone app or the Contacts app.
When you view your contacts list, you might see a notice at the top of the screen notifying you that duplicates have been found.
If you don’t see the notice, scroll to the bottom of your contacts list. Here, you’ll see the total number of contacts on your list and any duplicates.
How to Merge Contacts
If you see “View Duplicates” at the top of your list, tap it. If you don’t, scroll to the bottom of your contacts list and tap “X Duplicates Found.”
Any duplicate contacts will be listed at the top of your screen. Tap on the contacts to view them. Then, when you’re ready, tap “Merge” to non-destructively combine the separate entries.
You can also tap “Merge All” on the previous screen to combine everything rather than reviewing each contact individually.
If you don’t see duplicates mentioned on your main contacts list, make sure your phone is updated to iOS 16. If your phone is updated and you still don’t see any duplicates, you’re good to go. Duplicates are only detected in entries where the same information is listed, for example, a phone number.
RELATED: 16 iOS 16 Features You Should Try Out Right Away
Disable Contacts Associated with Email Accounts
Another easy way to clean up your contacts list is by disabling lists associated with your email accounts. Not all of these contacts are useful, so consider decluttering.
You can do so by going to Settings > Contacts > Accounts. Then, tap the account in question and toggle “Contacts” off.
When you do this, all contacts associated with that account will be deleted from your phone. However, they will remain on the server you downloaded them from, such as Google Contacts.
You can do much more with your contacts list on your iPhone, like delete multiple entries at once, add birthdays for your contacts, or make a list of your favorite contacts.
