Many many many contact duplicates

I've had a severe problem with Apple creating many, many duplicates (734 to be exact) of a single contact on my iPhone.  Other people are having this problem as well.  Although my computer Address Book only listed the contact once, my iPhone had a ridiculous amount.  iCloud syncing didn't work, iTunes synicing didn't work.  My husband was able to fix this problem and here's what he did. 
BEFORE you do anything though, make sure all your contacts are on the computer in your Address Book or else they'll all get erased. 
On your iPhone & your Apple computer uncheck the "Sync with iCloud" for contacts only (selecting the "remove/delete from phone" when it asks what you want to do after un-syncing). 
Go into your computer address book and delete the one(s) that's repeating. 
Use a web browser and log into iCloud and delete all the repeating ones (delete every one of the duplicates, don't even leave one of them or it will start creating many, many multiples). 
Wait a moment and make sure the contacts don't magically start reappearing again (if they do, then good luck!)
Check and make sure you have no synced contacts on your phone. 
Go back to both your phone and your computer and resync with iCloud (now the contacts you saved on your computer will go onto your phone).
Then you *should* be able to add the one contact that was the crazy repeater. 
I hope this works for any of you that have had this problem, and hopefully your contacts don't get erased either!  Good luck!

If you are syncing contacts with iCloud you should not be trying to sync contacts with iTunes too, if that's what you're doing.  This may help you resolve your problem with duplicates: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4147.

Similar Messages

  • HT2518 I migrated from a PC to a Mac Book Pro.  The contacts transferred over to the Mac along with many contacts that I had deleted sometime ago. Also some contacts did not transfer at all.  How can I perform a correct and up to date migration of my cont

    I migrated from a PC to a Mac Book Pro.  The contacts transferred over to the Mac along with many contacts that I had deleted sometime ago.  Also some contacts did not transfer at all. How can I perform a correct and up to date migration of my contacts? 

    well no reply from the community. sniff- do i stink!? - probably a little bit. If i have lost all that data then I'm gonna really really pong.
    Any ways i have purchased a 1tb usb HDD and have managed to duplicate the dmg file onto it. however still unable to mount the **** thing. so now i have ordered disk warrior which will be in my possession tomorrow.
    fingers toes eyes crossed.

  • Many contacts are not visible to alphabetical browse on Contacts after update to OS 10.2 on the Z10

    After updating to 10.2 on Z10  many contacts do not appear on the Contacts list, but if I search for them, I get them one at a time. I can't browse for them, but they are still in a file somewhere. That file is no longer fully connected to the Contacts app, it seems. I'm going to call the two alternatives the "browsible" list when I refer to the Contact app working correctly and lsiting the contact alphabetically; and the "non-browsible" list, when I can only find them by a search.
    One other thing of interest. When I add a contact that is in the same name as one on the non-browsible, I will get a message asking me if I want to replace the [old] contact. If I say yes, the new contact listing joins the hidden list and replaces what was there. If I say no, I get the contact added to the browsible Contact app. Thereafter, if I search on that name I get two hits: one is the old, non-browsible entry and the other is the new one that is browsible.
    I did the 10.2 update when I was running the older BB link on a WinXP computer and it did not work to create a back-up, so I can't try restore. I now run Win7 64-bit and the new link seems to work okay,  but that was installed after I upgraded to 10.2..
    Any suggestions as to where I go to find the hidden contact entries on the non-browsible list? And how I get them to appear on the alphabetical, browsible, list when Contacts is opened?
    Thanks for all answers.
    Ken 

    That's another odd thing. I did make a big effort to back-up the Z10 before the update to OS 10.2.1.  But, it appears to me that by downloading the new OS to my computer [T-Mobile never does push the BB updates, not as long as I've owned it, which was a few days before the US distro, when I got hold of one for the South American market in Miami Breach] it seems to have removed my installed BB Link from my laptop. And my back-up files are empty.  
    Last time something like this happened. there was a workaround. Do this, do that, and suddently the contacts that are lurking somewhere on the phone, appear. I was hoping for this again.
    If this is a known issue, why is it not featured on the BB page where the installer was located? I would never have downloaded OS 10.2.1, if I was warned I might lose my contacts and texts. 
    A sorry mess.
    Ken
    PS Note I corrected "visible" to "invisible" in the title of  this thread

  • If you cannot sync contacts this might be the problem...too many contact groups

    I have a Centro and MAC book and was trying to use ISync and then Missing Sync to sync data. In both programs the contacts would not sync but all else did just fine. I have many contacts but did not need all of them on my phone so I organized them into groups in the address book, with one group being a list of the current contacts I wanted on my phone. With MissingSync the program will only sync a certain number of groups, although I had more than that number I didn't think it mattered because I was only trying to sync the one group. It matters. Even though in the Missing Sync conduit setting the group was listed and I only checked that group off to sync - nothing would sync. 
    The solution was to save a back up of my address book and then delete all my contact groups except the one I wanted to sync. POOF! It worked. I am not sure exactly how many groups would work but if the priority is to get a certain number of contacts, not all, on your phone and you have a lot of groups, maybe this strategy will work for you. If you are using ISync, since the problem was the same for both programs, maybe this would also be the solution in ISync. 
    What led to this ah-ha moment was a forum moderator at MissingSync suggesting I create another user on my computer with administrative capability, create a few test contacts and then try to sync. This did work, the contacts did sync.
    I hope this may be of help to someone and possibly save you a lot of time.  Good luck!  
    Post relates to: Centro (Verizon)

    Thank you for the information

  • How many contacts can the iPhone hold....now?

    This question was asked back in 2008 and has been archived, however I'd like to revisit this issue.
    What I'd like to know, is this:
    How many contacts can the iPhone hold before it effects performance?
    I have a iPhone user with an MS Exchange email account on the phone, Calendar and Contact sync is turned on. The problem is, the user has 10,000 contacts.
    The contacts synchronized to the iphone, however, when writing emails or doing any task that accesses the contacts database (i.e. auto-completion of names), There is a good 35 to 40 second lag before you can enter the second letter of a name on the keyboard. I can only assume that this is due to the pure insanity of having 10,000 contacts on a mobile device... The search takes too long. Although it did work just fine on the blackberry (a lessor device ).
    Can anyone tell me if there is a limit on how many contacts one can successfully store on an iPhone without running into the "lag" issue?
    Thanks in advance.
    Nigle

    What is the overall size of all these songs?
    This will determine how many songs the iPhone can hold.
    The actual capacity of an 8GB iPhone is around 7.3 GB - OS X alone takes up approximately 500MB.
    You should leave some free space available on the iPhone for general operating purposes and if you access any email accounts and for Safari cache purposes, etc.
    So you have around 7GB available - as long as the overall size of all 9400 songs isn't greater than 7GB or so, you are covered.

  • I have an I phone 4s and I have many contacts in my phone.  However, whne my phone rings or I receive a text, the phone does not show the name of the contact person only the phone number.  I have checked every setting I can think of ?

    I have an I phone 4s and I have many contacts in my phone.  However, when my phone rings or I receive a message.  The phone does not show the name of the caller.  It only shows the phone number that is calling.  I am sure this is a setting problem, but I have checked every setting I can think of.  Any suggestions??

    If you are a Verizon user try this:
    Open the phone and dial *228. This is a Verizon over-the-air programming number.
    When the system answer press 1 for "Program or activate your phone"
    Wait for the call to disconnect. You should get a prompt stating "Settings updated."
    Double tap the Home button to bring up the recently used apps list at the bottom.  Locate the Phone, Message, and Contacts apps, swiping if necessary, and press and hold until they jiggle then press the red minus sign to stop them.
    Wait a 3-5 minutes.
    Try your phone again and see if it's fixed.

  • Am I trying to print too many Contacts at once?

    I have over 2000 contacts in my Address Book, and when I try to print I get the "Preparing" window forever. I can break it down to smaller groups, but I'm wondering if there's a limit to how many contacts Address Book can print in one pass. Any ideas?

    You really can't. Try downloading them on your computer and sync. Next try restoring from backup.

  • How many contacts can i stored in iphone4s?because I lost old contacts when I add in new contact.

    How many contacts can i stored in iphone4s?because I lost old contacts when I add in new contact.

    This do  not solve my problem of Why I lost old contacts when I add in new contacts?

  • I have many contacts in address book from a certain company that just changed its name.  Is there a way to globally change all the contacts to the new company name all at once?

    I have many contacts in address book from a certain company that just changed its name.  Is there a way to globally change all the contacts to the new company name all at once?

    Rando510 wrote:
    Although clunky as you say, this sounds like a reasonably efficient way to accomplish what I was seeking.
    Address Book has no global find/replace. Bob Grove suggested one possible workaround; however, a grep-capable text editor (eg, TextWrangler) is better than TextEdit if complex strings are involved.
    An alternative is Bento (which is designed specifically to interact with the AB database), but it's not free.

  • HT2486 How can I tell how many contacts in my address book?

    Hiow can I tell how many contacts I have in my iMac address book?  I'm consolidating contacts.
    Thanks

    Go to the very end of your address book. A to Z.
    The total count will be visible at the bottom.

  • BP with many contact persons

    Dear All,
    How to upload business Partners with many contact persons details.
    iam unable to do with DTW  with Contact empolyees templet.
    any one guide me
    thanks

    For Importing BP Contacts.
    In the BusinessPartners template just fill the RecordKey and CardCode, leave everything else blank
    On the ContactEmployees template
    enter the recordkey corresponding to the BP in the BusinessPartners template and repeat the recordkey if entering mutiple contacts for the same BP.
    NO NEED TO ENTER LINENUM
    Attached the BP template after highlighting BusinessPArtners in STEP 2 and highighlight contactEmployees and Browse and select the contact employees template
    ON STEP 3, click the Target Data tab and Only Check "Add all Items into Schema if can't ......"
    Proceed by clicking Next and complete the import.  Please check both Import and Update in STEP 4

  • I received a message about having too many contacts?  Not sure what this means, didn't know there limitations on contacts.  Can you tell me about fixing this problem?

    I received a message about having too many contacts?  Not sure what this means, didn't know there limitations on contacts.  Can you tell me about fixing this problem?

    What were you doing when you received the message?
    I have seen reports on these forums where there is a limit to how many contacts you can have in the "to" field of a text message. That is the only thing I can think of where someone has reported getting a warning about too many contacts.

  • TS4009 I deleted a large number of contacts on one iphone when i got a new one. icloud must have automatically synced to the old one, then synced my new one to that, thus deleting many contacts. can i restore them?

    I deleted a large number of contacts on one iphone when i got a new one. icloud must have automatically synced to the old one, then synced my new one to that, thus deleting many contacts. can i restore them? can i retrieve a snapshot of my icloud as it existed yesterday?

    When a device that is connected to an icloud account has it's contacts deleted, the same contacts at icloud.com are also deleted and then the changes propagate to other computers and devices also connected to the same icloud account.   In other words, the contacts are deleted everywhere.  Also, any iOS backup to icloud does not include contacts or any of the other Apple data, like calendars, reminders, etc.  The only way you can get that data back is if it was on a computer which has been frequently backed up.  You restore the data from the backup.  (This reference to "backup" is a local backup, it has nothing to do with icloud.)

  • How do you accept many contact requests at one time?

    We host a talk show program on Skype and get many contact requests. We'd like to accept them all at once if we could. Skype tends to hang up (spinning wheel and no response) when we go and accept them one by one. Any suggestions?

    We host a talk show program on Skype and get many contact requests. We'd like to accept them all at once if we could. Skype tends to hang up (spinning wheel and no response) when we go and accept them one by one. Any suggestions?

  • HT4489 i have v card which contains 14 mb ,but i don't know how many contact it contains ,and i m not able to transfer to my i cloud what to do??

    i have v card which contains 14 mb ,but i don't know how many contact it contains ,and i m not able to transfer to my i cloud what to do??

    Here is a link to a previous discussion that may help: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5344761?start=0&tstart=0

Maybe you are looking for