How to Remove Duplicate Contacts on iPhone & Android Devices

Duplicate contacts accumulate on your device due to syncing with various email and other accounts on your device. It accumulates over time and creates problems for you as it may enhance contact searching time for you. It makes your contact list cluttered and unorganized which affects contacts searching process negatively. This problem prevails similarly on all the devices including your favorite iPhone or Android device.

It happens very often when your Android device creates two or more copies of identical contacts data. This may happen due to syncing feature you have enabled on your device or due to data backup etc. This can clutter your contacts completely, making it tough to navigate through contacts. You can apply manual cleaning of these similar contacts, which may prove a lot of time-consuming or you can use some duplicate contacts remover tools for instant results. You can follow certain methods to de-duplicate your smartphone device instantly. This way you can better manage your contact list for instant contacts search.

How To Delete Duplicate Contacts on an iPhone
Method 1
Using Your Contacts App: Follow these steps to remove contacts using contact app in your device. Remember you can only delete one contact at a time. Go to iPhone’s Contact App from Home Screen.
• Scroll through the contact list to locate the contact you want to delete or go to search bar at the top of the screen for quick navigation.
• Tap on the selected contact to open the details.
• Tap “Edit” in the upper-right corner of the screen to edit the contact.
• Now scroll down to the bottom of the contact page and tap on “Delete Contact” option and confirm it.
Following these step, if your iPhone is connected to your iCloud account then the contact will be removed from all your connected devices.

Method 2
Deleting All iCloud Contacts: If you have synced your contacts on your iCloud account then you can follow these steps to remove these contacts from there.
• Open the Settings app from your Home Screen to turn off iCloud contacts syncing. It will allow you to remove all your iCloud contacts stored on your iPhone.
• Select “iCloud” to open the iCloud syncing menu.
• Now search for “Contact” and toggle it off. Here you will be prompted to remove all iCloud contacts stored locally on your device.
• Select “Delete from My iPhone” option to remove all the contacts which you have synced with your iCloud account.
Check other email accounts: You can follow the same procedure to remove contacts synced from other email addresses. To do this go to Settings > Mail/Calendars and toggle off contact syncing for any of the accounts to remove contacts.

Method 3
Using your Address book and iTunes: If your contacts are synced with your Mac or Outlook on a computer then you can remove them through your address book on the system. You can also remove iTunes contacts. To do this follow these steps:
• Open your “Address Book” from the menu and locate the contacts and press Command + Click (for Mac) or Ctrl + Click (for PC) to select multiple contacts which are not next to each other. Press Shift + Click to select contacts that are next to each other.
• In Address Book option for the Mac, system clicks on the “Edit” option and select “Delete Cards” or simply press the Delete key. On A PC, go to your Contacts list and click on Actions > Menu > Delete Contact.
• If your contacts are not synced wirelessly, plug your iPhone device into your system, Open iTunes menu and select your iPhone at the top right of the iTunes windows.
• Click on the “Info” tab and enable Sync Contacts > All Contacts.
• Click on the “Apply” to sync iPhone with iTunes and delete the contacts you removed in your address book.

Method 4
Using Groups: You can hide entire categories of contacts from the list without having to delete them completely. To manage your multiple groups on your device, tap the Groups button at the top lest of the Contacts screen. Now “Uncheck” the groups from the list to hide them and click on “Done” when finished.

Method 5
Using Apps: You can also delete duplicate contacts from your device using [duplicate contacts remover apps. These apps work efficiently to de-duplicate and manage your contact list in an organized manner.
You can follow these different methods to get rid of duplicate contacts on your iPhone device to get clean and organized contact list. It will reduce contact searching time for you.

How To Delete duplicate contacts on Android
Method 1
From the phone contacts: To do this, use the built-in contacts merging feature on your device. Go to Contacts app and tap on the menu button. Select Merge accounts > Merge from Google. Click OK and all your duplicate contacts will be merged.

Method 2
Using Gmail: Inbuilt feature on your Android device syncs all your contacts with active accounts on your device including Gmail account. You can remove all these duplicate contacts attached to your Gmail account without touching your Android device. To do this, follow these steps.
Open your Gmail account on your system and click on “Mail” from the left pane menu.
Select “Contacts” from the drop-down menu to open all contacts list attached to your Gmail account.
Click on “More” option located at the top of the screen and select “Find & Merge Duplicates…” option from the drop down menu.
Wait for while so that the list will open to see all duplicate contacts. Uncheck any contact if you want to keep it, else just click on the “Merge” option to merge all your contacts instantly.

Method 3
Remove duplicate contacts using a dedicated app: Similar to the app used to delete similar contacts on iPhone you can also use a dedicated app to remove all similar contacts on your Android device as well. These Android specific apps help you get rid of all unnecessary contacts from your device instantly. This way you can better manage your contacts effortlessly.

Author Bio:
Ankush Ameria is Software Analyst 
who loves to write on latest software 
and apps to boost system performance.

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