Duplicates in my Address Book?

I've installed iCloud and now I have duplicates in my address book and iCal.
What do I do about that? Am I to just delete all the duplicates?

Do I turn off the local accounts in the iCal and Address Book applications? I understand what you're suggesting, but I don't know where to do it. Can you explain in more detail?

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How to delete duplicate entries in address book

Is there an easy way to delete duplicate entries in Address Book?

I have an iPhone where I create new contact details and a MB Air running OX X 10.7.3
In Address Book I see duplicate entries across the whole book. The other day I was traveling without my MB and needed to urgently reach someone who's number I knew was in my iPhone contact list for sure but searched and search and couldn't find it.
Turns out that when I had been going through the Adress Book on the MB Air trying to eliminate some of the duplicates I had chosed --without even knowing it or realzing it-- the card that I guess sync with my iPhone. It was gone. Sure enough, when I got back and looked it up on the MB Air it was still there not syncing to my iPhone.
I have used Address Book / Card / Look for Duplicates ...
I have also followed the Help suggesting and pressed Control / select to highlight two duplicate cards and even though the First / Last / Company / phone numbers / etc. are all the same I get the message: "The cards could not be merged because they came from different accounts."
I have checked with guys from the office who have the exact same problem with no idea how to solve the problem.
Is it that in order to use Address Book on both an iPhone and an OS X machine you've just got to be smarter, more sophisticated, more IT oriented?
Seems like a pretty easy thing not to be struggling with.
I should mention that I was a Mobile Me subscriber and now use iCloud which I'm sure has something to do with all of this.
But it seems pretty basic to me. If I have an Address Book it should synchronize between OX X and IOS.

View Duplicate Entries in Address Book

Does anyone know how you can view your duplicate entries in Address Book before you merge them?
Thank you!

books06,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
It depends upon which version of Address Book you are using, and your definition of "view."
1. Address Book 3.1.1 Help
2. Address Book 4.0.3 Help: Combining duplicate cards and information
To find and merge duplicate cards:
1. Choose Card > "Look for Duplicate Entries."
2. Address Book tells you if it finds duplicate cards, cards containing duplicated information, or both.
3. Click Merge to merge duplicate cards and remove redundant information on cards.
When Address Book merges duplicate cards, it creates a single card for the contact containing all of the unique information from each merged card. Address Book uses the picture from the merged card appearing first in the list.
To merge selected cards only, Command-click to select the cards you want to combine and choose Card > Merge Selected Cards. Address Book creates a single card using the name and picture of the selected card appearing first in the list.;~)

How do I create a duplicate card in Address Book?

I have searched and found plenty of posts on how to FIND, MERGE or DELETE duplicate cards in Address Book...
- But I want to CREATE a duplicate card. In other words, if I want to create separate cards for 2 married people with the same last name, address and home phone number, is there a fast way to create a second card without having to manually fill in all contact info?
Also, WHERE does one post Address Book questions? This was just a guess.
Thanks.
Robert

I think I understand your question and if so, this is a decently speedy workaround.
1) Create your first card with say the husbands name
2) Go to File > Export > Export vCard
3) Change the name of the card that is in Address Book to the other person ie. the wifes name
4) Go to File > Import > Import vCard (shortcut is Command+O)
5) Now you will have the original vCard you created which is the husbands name and you will have the wife's name as well because you just changed it.
You can import and export multiple vCards at once so you can create all of them, export them, change all the names, and then re import.
Hope this helps!
David

How do I manage duplicates in my address book

How do I manage duplicates in my address book.
I am using iOS 7 and iCloud

Hi nacnud1234,
If you are having issues with duplicates when using iCloud Contacts, you may find the following article helpful:
iCloud: Resolving duplicate Contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4147
Regards,
- Brenden

I am trying to create a group in the address book. When I drag over the contacts from the contact list they duplicate in the address book. I am using "Lion"

When I try to create a group from the address book, when I drag over the names from the contact list, the names duplicate in the address book.

Hi cavu10horses,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. This article has instructions for changing a contact's photo using a photo from iPhoto's Faces feature:
Contacts: Add or change contact pictures
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11580
Select a contact or your own card, and then double-click the picture well.
Select a picture:
Drag an image to the picture well.
Click Camera to take a picture.
If you have pictures in iPhoto, click the Faces button to use a face from iPhoto.
If the contact is linked (it’s in multiple accounts, but displayed only once in Contacts) and has multiple account pictures, click Linked.
Click Edit to edit the picture.
To zoom in and out of the picture, drag the slider. Drag the picture to change which part of it is visible.
To rotate the picture, hold down the Option key while you click and drag the picture.
To apply special effects, click the Effects Gallery button and choose an effect.
Click Done.
Cheers,
- Ari

How to Remove duplicate entries in address book

After syncing with iCloud (three computers and a phone) suddenly I am seeing multiple entries for the same contact in the address book and multiple entries in the calendars for the same event. Can anyone suggest how to stop this and how to delete the multiple entries without having to manually delete each item? The new Address book does noit seem to have a list view that shows the entire address book 9only shows addresses with two or three alphabets...
Is there a setting to prevent this from happening? I had similar experiences with the old Mobile.me and was hoping the problem had been fixed.
The value of iCloud is lessened when these issues crop up and there seems to be no defined method to fix the problem. I see numerous entries on the Support Community boards with the same problem.
Any suggestions? Thank you.

Hi,
Take a look at Address Book Account Basics (with iCloud). and Duplicate address Book entries.
I too had the same issue and this helped solve it.
Hope this helps.

Finding duplicate entries in address book

I am using Address Book 5.0.3, where I have been using LinkedIn's CardMunch to import contact details via my iPhone. However, I now end up with three distinct issues regarding duplicate entries:
1/ two people with the same name, e.g. John Smith, but I know they are two separate people and they work for different companies.
2/ After an import, I may have some duplicate entries, say Alan Walker, who has moved from company A to company B and I want to replace his old contact details with the new information.
3/ two duplicate entries the same name, say Brian Vickers, both of which refer to the same person who still works for the same company, but has new contact details or additional data, such as a mobile number that I did not have before.
4/ two duplicate entries that are identical. E.g. I imported the same card twice for some reason.
5/ multiple entries marked 'Cannot Read Name', where CardMunch had a problem, but I know they are different people and I have to edit these to manually enter the correct information.
Unfortunately the Address Book find duplicates function, whilst it works, does nothing useful. The only option I am presented with is 'Merge', which in all of the scenarios above apart from item 4 I do not want to do a merge function - I want to either 'Mark as NOT Duplicates' (item 1/), 'Replace Selected Fields' e.g. show me the two cards side by side and allow me to select which fields from which card are to be kept, replaced or removed and then implement the merge (item 2), "Add New Information' but allow me to select the label for that information before merging so that if someone has a new iPhone, but is still keeping their old mobile, I can select the field label correctly and then merge (item 3) or 'Edit Card' which allows me to open any identified duplicate and add in missing information that would mean that it is no longer a duplicate item.
Can anyone suggest a way of doing this, or can Apple's developers please add these features to the Address Book App as soon as possible?
Thanks, Russ Taylor

books06,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
It depends upon which version of Address Book you are using, and your definition of "view."
1. Address Book 3.1.1 Help
2. Address Book 4.0.3 Help: Combining duplicate cards and information
To find and merge duplicate cards:
1. Choose Card > "Look for Duplicate Entries."
2. Address Book tells you if it finds duplicate cards, cards containing duplicated information, or both.
3. Click Merge to merge duplicate cards and remove redundant information on cards.
When Address Book merges duplicate cards, it creates a single card for the contact containing all of the unique information from each merged card. Address Book uses the picture from the merged card appearing first in the list.
To merge selected cards only, Command-click to select the cards you want to combine and choose Card > Merge Selected Cards. Address Book creates a single card using the name and picture of the selected card appearing first in the list.;~)

How can I get rid of iCloud duplicates in my Address Book?

Since joining iCloud, I have two duplicate sets of iCloud groups in my Address Book. How can I get rid of one of them?

susan-soy wrote:
Since joining iCloud, I have two duplicate sets of iCloud groups in my Address Book. How can I get rid of one of them?
If you have 2 accounts in AB (iCloud and On My Mac) stop looking at both of them simultaneously.

No "search for Duplicates" found in address book

Hey, on my intel imac I've got no "search for duplicates" available to me in Address Book. It shows up in my macbook, and my lampstand powerbook. All three are running 10.4.10, Adressbook is Version 3.1.2 (321)
Also, when I sync with .Mac it doubles up all of my entries in the libraries on both computers.
Any ideas?

AB search should search notes. quit Address book and delete the file homedirectory/library/application support/address book/AddressBook-v22.abcddb. then start Address Book and see if search works correctly now. if it doesn't reindex your hard drive with spotlight. add your hard drive to spotlight's privacy pane for a few seconds and then remove it from there. wait for reindexing to finish and try AB search again.

DUPLICATE CONTACTS IN ADDRESS BOOK ON iPHONE

I have duplicate contacts for every name in my address book on my iPhone. This morning, I opened my address book in my AppleBook and erased all duplicates. I synced my iPhone again, and still have duplicate addresses. Can anyone explain the problem and help me resolve it? Thanks

This means you've also selected to sync contacts direct with the Address Book on your Mac via the iTunes sync preferences, which duplicates the contacts on your iPhone.
To remove the duplicates on your iPhone, deselect sync Contacts under the Info tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes followed by selecting Apply.
On your iPhone go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Select your MobileMe account.
Turn Contacts off for over the air syncing. This will erase all contacts downloaded from your MobileMe online address book with a warning message provided indicating this will occur. This will not erase contacts synced direct with the Address Book on your Mac via the iTunes sync process.
Select OK and wait a minute or two for the online contacts to be deleted from your iPhone.
Follow this by turning Contacts back on for over the air syncing. This will provide a merge prompt, which you want to select. This will eliminate the duplicates.

HT2486 How can i remove duplicates from my address book?

When I synced my phone through icloud my contacts were all duplicated on my address book on my desktop. is there an easy way to remove the dupilcates? thank you!

Here's one such AppleScript I found on the web
The script will Find the duplicate Entries in Your AddressBook.app and put them into a New Group Called "Duplicate Entries" Allowing you to easly compare and edit them.) ***NOTE: The script will ADD a NEW GROUP IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK : NAMED "Duplicate Entries" if it does not exist:
Details found at - http://www.macosxhints.com/comment.php?sid=20060322202753429
or
http://bbs.applescript.net/viewtopic.php?id=16646
Written by © Mark Hunte - 2006 *)
tell application "Address Book"
   set biglist to {}
   if not (exists (group "Duplicate Entries")) then
       make new group with properties {name:"Duplicate Entries"}
   end if
   set the_names to the name of every person as list
   repeat with i from 1 to number of items in the_names
       set this_Name to item i of the_names
       set theName to name of person this_Name as string
       if this_Name is not in biglist then
           copy this_Name to end of biglist
       else
           add (people whose name is theName) to group "Duplicate Entries"
       end if
   end repeat
   save addressbook
end tell

Duplicate accounts on Address Book

I have setup my iCloud and I have an Exchange account (my work account) setup on my Mac so I can read and compose email. However, address book shows up with three accounts: iCloud, Exchange and something called On My Mac (local). It shows duplicate names and wont merge. I don't have this problem on my iphone or ipad. Anyone know how to elimate the On My Mac account? Thanks.

vintage42 wrote:
I changed to iCloud for Address Book on three computers, and it works fine on two of the computers.
Inexplicably, on one of those computers, under "All Contacts", there is showing both:
"On My Mac" with a group called "All on My Mac".
and
"On iCloud" with a group called "All iCloud".
So on that one computer, "All Contacts" combines the "All on My Mac" group and the "All iCloud" group, resulting in a merger of the two groups and full duplication of contacts.
The "On My Mac" account cannot be deleted in Preferences because its minus sign is grey, nor can the "All on My Mac" group be deleted in Edit because Delete Group is grey.
How can I delete the "All on My Mac" group and get rid of the duplication?
You can't remove On my Mac, but you can empty the contents:
Export the contents of the group to an archive (unless you are sure that they are all duplicates) and then delete all contacts in that group.

Thousands of duplicate contacts in Address Book

I am running Thunderbird 24.4.0 on Windows 7. I have had the Google contacts Add On installed and activated for a while with no issues, but in the past month+ all of a sudden I am finding thousands (like 12,000) duplicates are certain contacts. It is usually a new to my system email address, and in at least two of the cases is a contact I already have in the system. And it's random - not EVERY new email address does this.
I have searched and searched and found others with the issue, but no real solution or explanation of where the problem might be coming from. Google contacts? Thunderbird? The add-on?
Anyone have any ideas? I know how to delete the multiples and use the merge function on Google -- but the problem is how to prevent it from happening! Not only is it annoying to have 15,000 of the same contact, but it causes terrible, terrible slowness in the auto-entering of addresses when I am writing an email, since the system has to search through so many contacts. Incredibly annoying.
Thanks in advance for the help!

I have that add-on installed and have none of your issues. What Thunderbird version?

Duplicates in Address Book on iMac since iCloud

As soon as I enabled iCloud, on my iMac Address Book, I now have duplicates of every contact. This only happened on my iMac. My iPad and iPhone don't have duplicates in their Address Book. Why would this happen? In the "notes" field of my contacts, I noticed that with the duplicate contacts, there are more notes in one entry than others (for example: Jane Doe's "notes" field show three lines of text that I entered, but the duplicate of Jane Doe only shows two of the lines of text in the "notes" field, leading me to believe one contact is newer than the other, but which is which, and how do I delete all the OLDER versions, and not accidentally erase the more recent versions?)
My god, Apple, you really messed this up! Does everyone remember when "It Just Works"?
HELP!

Could you please help me clarify which sequence I should be using to retrieve my backup Address Book data from? I, too, lost my contacts during a sync and am trying to retrieve them.
Is the recovery sequence in Time Machine Backups this:
1. Date-> Mac HD->Library-> Application Support->Address Book
or is it this?
2. Date-> Mac HD->Users->my name->Library->Application Support->Address Book
After copying the backup Address Book folder to the Desktop and opening the Mac HD icon, do I go to the folder Library->Application Suppport or the folder Users->my name->Library->Application Support to trash the Address Book and reinstall the backup copy? I have been trying both w/o any luck recovering my contacts thus far.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Duplicates in my Address Book?

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