How to disable contact linking feature?

In the iPhone Contacts app, if you edit a contact and scroll down, you can see a feature called "link contacts..." which lets you link one contact to another.


The problem is, iOS seems to do this automatically without the user's consent. This is very problematic as some contacts appear to be lost which, in fact, is linked to others. I have many accounts (iCloud, multiple Gmail accounts, work account, etc...). Sometimes, 2 entirely different contacts who share the same first name get linked together.


( In one instance, I had the first name and last name saved for my work contact, but only the first name saved for my personal contact. These are different people who just happen to have the same first name. But Apple decided that they belong together :p. I searched for Mr.Firstname and could see only Mr.Firstname Lastname in the search results. It's when in Whatsapp, Mr. Firstname's chat got titled as Mr. Firstname Lastname that I noticed that the 2 contacts were merged together.)


I could manually unlink the contacts. But is there a way to disable this annoying "feature"?

Posted on Oct 4, 2022 06:26 AM

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Posted on Oct 4, 2022 11:37 PM

Actually, I know how to manually link and unlink contacts. The issue is that the linking happens automatically and I want to disable that.

7 replies

Oct 4, 2022 08:15 AM in response to ponnierohith

ponnierohith wrote:

( In one instance, I had the first name and last name saved for my work contact, but only the first name saved for my personal contact. These are different people who just happen to have the same first name. But Apple decided that they belong together :p. I searched for Mr.Firstname and could see only Mr.Firstname Lastname in the search results. It's when in Whatsapp, Mr. Firstname's chat got titled as Mr. Firstname Lastname that I noticed that the 2 contacts were merged together.)

Unlike some Android devices, contacts are neither stored locally on an iPhone nor in SIM. They are synced to an email account that you had Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo or any Other


If Contacts were on iCloud, try this --> Restore contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more using ...


Else Add the email account that stores your contacts in the IOS mail app and enable Contacts. If you have a corporate email account added through a profile on your device, please check with your organisation's system administrator.

Oct 4, 2022 08:15 AM in response to ponnierohith

  1. Is this your corporate iPhone? Then please contact the system administrator of your corporate
  2. If it is your personal device, in that case, do you have any profile installed by your corporate/organisation/enterprise/School Management?
    1. Erase the profile added by you If you have installed a profile on your own --> Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone - Apple ...
    2. Or please contact the system administrator of the organisation who provided the profile to you


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How to disable contact linking feature?

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