TS4147 merging contact duplicates in address books

I tried merging contact duplicates in my address book thorugh the card- look for duplicates option but it does not seem to recognize any, althoug almost all my contacts are duplicates. Any other suggestions??
Thanks!!
Kris

That command finds duplicates if they are in the Same account, it sounds like you have more than one account, my guess is that you have 2, iCloud and On My Mac, check.

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Duplicates merging and deleting in Address Book

I know Apple Address Book has a "Look for Duplicates" option under the Card menu. I have a lot of contacts I'd like to clean up, and am thinking about using this functionality.
Here's the problem:
Many clean up tools are notoriously unintelligent. There are many contacts in my address book, for example, who have the same name, but different email addresses or phone numbers. For some of them, they are genuinely contacts that need to be merged. For others, they are legitimately different people. Whatever tool I use for cleanups has to allow me the opportunity to review what it thinks should be merged or deleted before it does so.
I went to Card > Look for Duplicates in Address Book, and got a window telling me it found "422 duplicate cards and 409 duplicate entries". I'm worried about pushing the Merge button since I have no idea how Address Book conducts this assessment, and whether or not it will give me an opportunity to review its changes when I push the button. Unfortunately, the help file is not very helpful on this.
Can anyone here offer me some insight into how Address Book identifies duplicate cards and entries, and if there's anyway to review its changes before they're made?
(I know I can create a backup of my Address Book before the processing, and restore afterwards if necessary, but I wouldn't know if I'd need to restore unless I could AT LEAST review a list of all 400ish changes it made.)
Dan

If you have not already tried, I would suggest to not use the address book duplicate merge feature. I just tried it doesn't give you the chance to review anything. All goes automatic and it leaves a complete mess. Merging companies with several people together, merging people with the same last name and phone number together, etc. I restored from a backup copy.

Merge iPhoto name with Address Book contact card?

I have a lot of pictures named on iPhoto under faces. But then I just put some contacts in my Address Book and I wanted to know if theres a way to merge the Faces name and the Contact Card. Or maybe if I can just rename all of the Faces at once under one person, and change them to the contact card name? P.S. I am currently running Snow Leopard. But i I need Lion for it, I will be biying it tomorrow anyways=) Thanks anyone who helps!:D

Oh wait! Nevermind! I found I can just rename it! I'm a little new to the Mac:P

How do I move/copy contacts from Entourage to iCloud Address Book without creating duplicates? Address Book on Mac, iCloud, iPhone and iPad is now empty

How do I move/copy contacts from Entourage to iCloud Address Book without creating duplicates? Address Book on Mac, iCloud, iPhone and iPad is now empty

Thank you for letting me know!
Going to give it a go. Had a back up of all my clients files stupidly not my software as I have the originals disks. Just realised that amongst the software is ibiz and have lost al my accounting and billing files for the last 7 years want to cry so losing my contacts now will really tip me over the edge!
Fingerscrossed this works!

How do i eliminate duplicates in address book/contacts across multiple devices?

i have old iMac G5, iPhone4; recently added new iMac, iPad2, & Time Capsule, so i have multiple contacts & address books that i need to consolidate without having 3 duplicates of the same person every time i update? Please help? Thank You!

Since upgrading to iPhone 4S and using iCloud, I have eliminated the duplicates in the address book, but not the calendar. Once all devices were setup for iCloud, I had duplicates in address book and contacts on my iPhone. So in settings on the iPhone for iCloud, I turned off calendar and address book. After a few minutes I turned those back on. Then, it synced with iCloud and no duplicates. At least in address book. The calendar continues to display duplicate appointments.
It's frustrating. Maybe all of us Apple users just don't know how to do this corectly. But it seems like a bug. Otherwise, why not address the confusion in the marketplace and post online training for how to sync all your devices without creating duplicates. Since that solution/training has never surfaced, I say this is a long standing bug in the system and Apple has never figured it out. It remains one of the few complaints I have about Apple. Wish they would get it right.

Can iPhone 4 contacts overwrite MacBook Address Book contacts?

Can someone please help me, perhaps Allan Sampson? My problem is that I somehow have >2,000 duplicate contacts in my MacBook's Address Book. Though I do backups, I've added dozens of new contacts to my iPhone where, so far, I do not have any duplicates. Basically, I need to somehow, if possible, overwrite all of my desktop contacts with the contacts from my iPhone. I've searched in the Apple Discussions for 2 hours and can't find an answer to this. The closest Google hit I found was http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2111565 but it did not work for me.
Some background:
- OS X 10.6.6
- iTunes ver 10.1.2
- iPhone OS 4.2.1
- I am syncing iPhone with MobileMe account
- iTunes is also syncing contacts with MobileMe
- Under iPhone "Info" tab in iTunes, it is NOT set to Sync Address Book Contacts
- This is not the first time I am syncing.
- I called Apple Support. Zero help.
- I can't use the Address Book "Look for Duplicates..." feature because I have a few dozen contacts that it will combine that I need to keep separate.
Could anyone possibly help me with this? My only other option is to manually delete >2,000 duplicate contacts...that would take me several months.
Thank you!

I tried this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1472736 , specifically Allan Sampson's suggestion (below), but it did not work either.
"The sync process for contact information, calendar events, and bookmarks with an iPhone is bidirectional with the supported application on your computer.
Enter at least one contact in the Address Book application and one calendar event in iCal on your Mac before syncing. Pay attention to any message provided when syncing such as merging data. If you are unsure about any such message provided, cancel the sync until you are sure."

Is it possible to keep Contact List and Address Book seperate on iPhone?

I just made the switch today- big time – from Motorola to iPhone, and from PC to iMac, plus a Macbook Air as well for travel. Thanks to iphone and Mac forums I have been able to resolve most newbie issues and have exported my data, files and contacts without problem.
However there is one issue I have not been able to resolve or clarify:
- My old phone contact list has now been transferred my new iPhone, consisting of about 100 phone numbers which I use regularly.
- Address Book in my new iMac contains about 800 contacts including phone numbers, clients, etc, as well as personal bank account numbers, and other confidential data in the “Notes” field, which I need to refer to only occasionally.
But I understand that if I sync my iPhone with my Mac, it will merge my Address Book contacts on Mac, with the phone contacts on my iPhone Contact list, into one list. Is this true? Is it not possible to maintain 2 separate Apps on my iPhone, i.e
1. The iPhone Contact list for frequently used telephone contacts, and
2. The Mac Address Book with more detailed notes and account numbers, which I only need to refer to occasionally?
3. If this is possible, can I configure it so that a password is required each time the Address Book on iPhone is accessed? (I realise I can configure the iphone to require a pin when turned on), but I would like a password to access the Address App because of the confidential data. Previously I had all this data contained on a Palm Zire 72 handheld and its PC Desktop counterpart, where a password was required to access.
From what I’ve read on the forums, it will be very cumbersome to have a phone contact list with 1000 names on it, so I want to keep phone contacts simple with phone numbers only. (I realise I can set up Group folders in Address Book, but this is not what I need). I'm also concerned about having confidential information on my iPhone which can be accessed without a password for that particular application. I intend to get MobileMe but that also does not address the issue of keeping Telephone Contacts seperate from Address Book on iPhone.
Any help would be much appreciated!

Speculating:
if, as already suggested, you use the Groups function to sync only the 100 contact list numbers, then how to get the expanded Address Book?
I've not used it myself, but Bento might be worth looking into--Bento on the Mac pulls your Address Book data (I'm pretty sure) and syncs to Bento iPhone.
I don't recall hearing about any alternate phone books, but since pretty much any program on the Mac can hook into the Address Book, you might look at the more powerful note organizers to see if any of them pull that data?
You might have a problem getting notes added on the phone back into Address Book on the Mac, though.
I actually right now keep my main address book in MS Entourage (similar to Outlook), and only use the Mac Address Book to sync to the iPhone. I could sync Entourage to Address Book, but I don't--haven't sorted out the data yet, and I don't really need all the same numbers in both places.
If that sounds possible, you might look at Mark/Space and Missing Sync for iPhone---something like keeping all 800 contacts in Entourage, and syncing them all, but moving the confidential portion of each contact into Entourage Notes and syncing those via Missing Sync, perhaps might work. (I think you can link a contact to a note in Entourage)
An interesting problem. You might also send feedback to Apple:
http://apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
as this is really not a usage scenario they've planned for. They probably don't care, though--doesn't seem all that common.

Contacts per iMac address book: 1,301 iCloud: 1,486 iPhone 4s: 1,508 iPhone 4: 1,489 How can I make them all the same?

My address book has been an intense problem for me for a while (i.e. even pre-iPhone 4s/iCloud). Before I upgraded, my iPhone 4 had thousands of duplicate contacts. The address book was up to ~7,500 even though what was then Mobile Me had somewhere in the 1,000 to 1,500 range for contacts. So after I upgraded, I attempted to fix it by doing the following:
I connected my iPhone 4S to the iMac (after I set it up with the latest iPhone 4 backup), went to the iTunes info tab for my device and unchecked syncing for any address book contacts, calendars, email accounts. And then I synced it. This didn't work. I believe my contacts were still at ~7,500.
So next I tried checking just the Sync Address Book Contacts option on the info tab which then allowed me to check contacts under the Advanced/Replace Information on this iPhone section at the bottom of the info tab. This made my iPhone contact list further balloon up to 13,000 + contacts.
So the next thing I did (still in the info tab) was to select Selected Groups under the "Sync Address Book Contacts" section of the info tab. I believe I still had the option to replace the info on my iPhone selected. I then selected one of my contact groups that had no contacts in it. Why would I create a contact group with no contacts in it? I didn't. I created some smart groups and prior to my iPhone 4s upgrade I noticed the smart groups contact lists I spent some time setting up were not populated with anything. Same with some of the non-smart group contact lists I had created.
After telling it to only sync that empty group and to replace the contents on my iPhone I ended up with 1,508 contacts. Why I didn't end up with either zero or the same number as in iCloud is beyond me. This at least seems closer to my true number of contacts but as mentioned in my subject above the number of contacts differ between all three places (iPhone 4s, iCloud and iMac address book). I also noticed that my wife is no longer in my iPhone 4S or in iCloud as a contact but she is listed in the iMac contacts which has fewer contacts than the other two places.
So I believe that in all three locations, there are situations where the address book includes contacts not in the other two locations, and vice versa (excludes contacts that are in the other locations). Can somebody help me understand how I can truly sync my contacts so that they are identical in all locations? This has been a huge problem for me since the Mobile Me roll out and sadly continues to persist now that I've migrated to iCloud.
Blah, I am so fed up with this persistent issue.

I assume you never got a solution. My own painful story is here:
http://tech.kateva.org/2012/06/icloud-transition-went-as-expected.html
I've given up on Lion/iCloud. I'll try Mountain Lion.

HT4489 How can I synchronize contacts between Apple Address Book/iPhone address book and Outlook (I'm on Mac OX10.7.4 and using Office 2011)?

I appear to have done what I should to move to iCloud on my Mac, MacbookAir, iPhone and iPad. Using Outlook 2011 on the iMac and unable to sync contacts between Outlook and my Apple Address Book and iPhone over the cloud. I gather lots of people have the same problem but some appear to have solved it... any ideas?
Also, in some sync, I managed to duplicate the entries on the Address Book on my Mac, whereas the iCloud Address Book is ok. How can I replace the Address Book on my computer with the one on iCloud?
Thank You for any help!

Hi Lucy, I had the same problem with Outlook data sync. Once you've enabled iCloud all your contacts are moved to iCloud and are no longer stored on Mac, that's why Outlook cannot reach them - there is simply nothing to reach as data physically stored in cloud.
I use SyncMate to solve this problem. This app allows connecting and syncing numerous devices and accounts with your Mac and they have recently added iCloud into this list (here the page where they describe sync with iCloud http://www.sync-mac.com/cloud-sync.html ).
This is how I established sync of my Outlook data with iCloud via this app.
1. SyncMate syncs only that data which is located on your Mac so you will need to move your contacts back to Address Book on mac from iCloud and disable iCloud for contacts (in order they were stored on Mac, not in iCloud).
2. You install SyncMate and add iCloud as a new connection (depending on data you want to sync you need to choose "Cloud contacts" or "Cloud calendars" connection in SyncMate wizard and log into your iCloud via SyncMate). Once you've done this, you can sync data on Mac with iCloud via SyncMate.
3. I may assume that automatic sync option is enabled in Outlook preferences (as previously your contacts on Mac were synced with Outlook). If no - please, enable it (got to Outlook preferences).
4. Once all this done, data will be automatically synced betwen Outlook and iCloud (latter via SyncMate). The trick of SyncMate is that data is physically located on your Mac (thus ensuring it will be synced with other devices and accounts SyncMate supports, as I said before, SyncMate works with data which is located on Mac), but you still can have it in iCloud (sync will be performed via SyncMate, no need to enable iCloud itself).
5. And of course, you will be able to sync your iPhone contacts with your Mac (SyncMate supports sync with iPhones also). These contacts will be also synced to Outlook.

Can't remove duplicates in Address Book

Have lots of duplicates in Address Book since moving to iCloud. Went to Card>Look for Duplicate. It found a few and so merged them but there are still lots of identical cards that are not recognized as duplicates. Is there a simple, easy way to remove them? Otherwise, I may have to spend hours doing it manually.

If you click on File, and choose New Group, does the same thing happen?
What keyboard and mouse are you using?
Ernie
Message was edited by: Ernie Stamper

Duplicates in Address Book?

Every time I edit or add info to a contact on my address book, it makes a duplicate... How do I fix this... It does it on my iPhone 4s and on my ipad 2...

I have the exact same behavior on my iPhone 4 running iOS 5.0.1
On icloud.com I don't see the duplicates.
Edit: It seems to have something to do with changing the Apple ID, which I did recently. Look at this discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/message/17239744#17239744

How do you delete duplicates in address book?

I have over 900 contacts in my Address Book. Is there a quick and easy way to delete duplicates? I have my contacts synced with ICloud. I'm not sure how this happened.

Duplicates are on my MacBook Pro, my ICloud and IPhone is fine.

Duplicate the Address book ?

How do I copy / duplicate my Address book that is on iCloud so I have a non cloud copy on my Mini or is there a method to sync both?
Cheers

If you are using Outlook 2011, make sure you have the latest service pack and update.
Make sure your Mac Book and all devices have the latest update.
If the Calendar on the Mac Book is correct go to step 3
Assuming Mac Book Calendar is correct, remove accounts from iPhone, iPad.
Reconnect account to iPhone, iPad account.
All calendars should now be in sync.
There are times when the Mail, Calendar, Contact application has been corrupted (Outlook 2011, Mac Mail, Entourage, etc). This will cause all kinda of issues on your devices. You have to repair the mail client first. In the case of Outlook you can delete the profile and recreate it. In Mac Mail you can rebuild (from Tools on the menu bar)

Moving contacts into icloud, address book and ultimately onto iphone 5 is impossible. Why so hard?

NEED TO TRANSFER/SYNC CONTACTS FROM 500+ VCARDS ON MY COMPUTER ---> TO MY IPHONE5.
Why not just make the phone an open device? Drag and drop. I've spent three days trying to figure out how to easily get my contacts from my dumbphone to the new iPhone 5. I bluetoothed off my dumb phone to my computer. Both my iMac and MacBook Pro have the vcards. And another thing, Address Book, contacts, gmail, iTunes, whatever, I can't import multiple vcards. They have to be done one at a time.
No mass transfers of any kind? I have over 500 contacts to move. I've tried the following:
-Importing to contacts onto iMac; address book won't read vcard
-Importing to contacts on MacBook Pro w/Mountain Lion; reads vcards, only 1 at a time
-Importing to iCloud; doesn't work
-Importing to gmail contacts; only reads 1 at a time
-E-mailing 500+ to self in an e-mail and trying to open/transfer/read all on MacBook Pro and iPhone5; won't do multiple files
I know I can go pay Verizon to do it but I want to know WHY and HOW this works the way it does.
Beyond frustrated. Hulk, smash. Please for the love of god help me, and not in an "ambigous remark: sync to iCloud'" kind of way.
THANK YOU!
-Yancy

Seriously folks? I know it was long but I added all info to negate a need for endless back/forth clarifications. No answers???
FYI, i tried syncing contacts to google/gmail and it was a total clusterF as well. No gmail contacts, synced iphone, gmail contacts populated w/ all info but w/lots of repeat entries. Used seek and merge repeats in gmail and then resync but no such luck. Lots of iterations and nothing but fails. Seems everytime the phone and the gmail lists are "as desired" a new sync puts a ton of repeats back into gmail or onto phone. Still perplexed and still needing help....
pretty please....

Cannot sync iphone 4 contacts to macbook address book

HI,
I'm using iphone 4 and I would like to sync all the contacts in my iphone to my macbook address book. The macbook address book is empty and is running on OS X Lion. iTunes is version 10. I tried syncing once and all my contact in my phone is wiped out as the contacts in the address book is empty. Lucky me there is a backup a few months back. How do i copy my iphone contacts to my macbook?

If you put at least one contact, even a fake one, into your Mac's Address Book first, then when you sync you'll be given the prompt whether or not to merge the contacts.

TS4147 merging contact duplicates in address books

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