How to get rid of duplicate contacts on Mac and iPhone

“Some of my contacts on iPhone are double displayed. The contents of the two contacts are identical. How can I remove one of them?”

Do you come across the same situation? Duplicate contacts are very annoying. To make your contacts organized and make your work more efficient, it’s advisable to remove the duplicate contacts.

In this concise article, I will show you how to get rid of duplicate contacts on Mac and iPhone.

3 Easy Steps to Remove Duplicate Contacts on Mac

When duplicate contacts are generated on Mac, most of people don’t know how to fix it. Some people delete them one by one, but it would be time-wasting if there are lots of duplicate contacts. Actually, Contacts App on Mac provides a straightforward and fast way to get rid of duplicate contacts in batch quickly.

Step 1. Open Contacts App on your Mac.

Step 2. Click Card in the menu and go to Look for Duplicates.

Step 3. The duplicate cards are found quickly. You can click Merge button to merge the duplicates.

Note: If you want to merge cards that have the same name but contain different information, you can check the box in the bottom.

After 3 easy steps, the duplicate contacts on Mac are removed. It is really easy, right?

Get rid of duplicate contacts on iPhone

Unlike mac, there isn’t a direct way to delete duplicate contacts on iPhone. Luckily, we can We eliminate double contacts with the help of some tools. In the following part, we provide you with two practical methods.

Method 1. Delete duplicate contacts on iPhone via Google Contacts

Google Contacts can be used to delete duplicate contacts. So, we can transfer contacts from iPhone to Google Contacts. This method is a little bit complicated because it requires multiple steps.

The process mainly involves three major processes: sync iPhone contacts to iCloud, import contacts from iCloud to Google Contacts, and delete the duplicates in Google Contacts.

Step 1. Tap settings on your iPhone.

Step 2. Click your name.

Step 3. Go to iCloud.

Step 4. Turn on the Contacts option. Then, your contacts from iPhone are synced to iCloud.

Step 5. Go to iCloud.com and sign in using your Apple ID.

Step 6. Click Contacts.

Step 7. Select the contacts, click the setting icon in the left bottom and go to Export vCard. The contacts you selected will be downloaded as vCard files.

vCard is a kind of file format for electronic business cards and is also known for .vcf file (virtual contact file). It is used as the interchange data formats to exchange the contacts information among different contacts application.

Step 8. Go to Google Contacts and sign in with your Google/Gmail account.

Step 9. Click Import in the left menu list.

Step 10. In the pop-up window, click select file, and upload the vCard file that you downloaded from iCloud previously.

Step 11. Click Merge & fix in the left menu list.

Step 12. All duplicate contacts are listed here. Now you can decide to Merge or Dismiss the duplicates.

> Click Merge all in the right top corner, the duplicates listed here will be fixed.

> You can click Dismiss or Merge one by one.

Removing duplicate contacts on iPhone manually is not an easy thing. The method above contains multiple steps, so just be patient.

Method 2. A Easier Method to Remove iPhone Duplicate Contacts via Cisdem Contactsmate

This method is a good choice, especially for these who are not familiar with vCards, iCloud.com and Google Contacts. This method require a software Cisdem Contactsmate, a contacts management tool. It can be used to get rid of duplicate contacts on iPhone easily and quickly.

The first four steps are the same as above: Sync your iPhone contacts with iCloud.

Step 5. Add a account.

Download and run the application. Click Add Account at the top menu.

Step 6. Select iCloud and sign in.

In the Internet accounts window, choose iCloud and sign in. Remember to check the box next to Contacts.

Step 7. Scan duplicate contacts.

Quit and relaunch the software, your contacts from iPhone are uploaded to this program. Click Scan.

Step 8. Delete all duplicate contacts with 1 click.

The scanning results are listed here. In the left column, find duplicate contacts, click delete duplicate contacts under Solution, and click Fix All at the right bottom.

Summary

Duplicate contacts always make us frustrated, especially for these who want to keep contacts list orderly. Now, you have learned how to remove duplicate contacts on Mac and iPhone, it is time for you to check your contacts list and get rid of duplicate contacts using the method above.