why does outlook create duplicate contacts

Question

why does the new outlook create duplicate of all my

contacts

Answer 1

Hi, @Carol Shurr

New Outlook normally hides exact duplicate contacts automatically, so if every contact is appearing twice, the duplicates may be coming from more than one contact source or the two copies may contain slightly different information.

To help narrow this down:

1. Did the duplicates appear immediately after switching from Classic Outlook to New Outlook?
2. Do you have more than one account added to New Outlook, such as Outlook.com, Gmail, or iCloud?
3. If you open two copies of the same contact, are the email address, phone number, and other details exactly the same?

Microsoft explains how New Outlook handles duplicate contacts here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/people/manage-duplicate-contacts-in-outlook

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Thanks!

Answer 2

In new Outlook, duplicate contacts are usually not actually created in the visible contact list. New Outlook continuously cleans up contacts and automatically hides duplicates when it finds either:

• exact duplicates, or
• a contact that is only a subset of another contact with more complete details

Examples:

• If two contacts have the same name, email, phone, company, and title, one is hidden.
• If one contact has the same core details but another version also includes extra fields such as company, title, or address, the less complete one can be hidden.

A duplicate can appear again if the hidden contact is changed in another Outlook client such as classic Outlook, Outlook for Mac, or Outlook Mobile, because it is no longer considered a duplicate.

If duplicates are showing everywhere, a common cause is how the contacts were imported. In classic Outlook import, choosing Allow duplicates to be created creates a second contact instead of replacing or skipping the existing one.

If the duplicates are only on an iPhone’s native Contacts app and not inside Outlook, that is a different issue. It can happen when Save Contacts is enabled in Outlook for iOS, especially on multiple iOS devices.

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• Manage duplicate contacts in Outlook | Microsoft Support
• [New Outlook](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/people/manage-duplicate-contacts-in-outlook)
• Duplicate Outlook contacts appear in iOS Contacts app
• [Classic Outlook](https://support.microsoft.com/outlook/people/import-or-export-contacts-in-outlook-using-a-csv-file#tab/classic-outlook)