macOS Contacts: Duplicate Microsoft 365 contacts & groups

Hi,


Pulling my hair out on this one :(. I have two macOS devices (MacBook Pro, Mac mini) - both running the same version of macOS, both connecting to the same Microsoft 365 account. I am syncing (the same) Contacts to both ... one works great, no issues at all. On the other, multiple duplicated contacts, and contact "groups" (not sure what to call them). Picture attached to show this.



I have tried ...

  • remove and re-add the (internet) account. No change.
  • disable and re-enable Contact sync. No change.
  • I checked iCloud, none of the contacts are there (as expected, they are in my Microsoft 365 account)
  • I did a full contact "clean reset" on the machine, still no change


Help?!?! Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

Mac mini (M1, 2020)

Posted on Nov 26, 2025 12:08 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 9, 2025 3:51 AM

You must manually delete the exchange-related “Source” folder inside ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook.

After re-adding the account, contacts sync cleanly with no duplicated groups.

Optionally disable Directory Lookup to prevent GAL showing up as groups.

2 replies

macOS Contacts: Duplicate Microsoft 365 contacts & groups

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