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Duplicate Contacts

Please help I need instructions on how yo remove duplicates in my contacts. This is happening in iCloud as well as on my MacBook and iPhone.

Posted on Sep 3, 2021 3:00 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 3, 2021 11:07 PM

Duplicates contacts ( they will be under iCloud section > in All iCloud ) are shown in Mac address book as well as in iCloud.com if these duplicate contacts are selected from Mac address book use command and A keys and click on command and delete key they will be deleted condition they must be in series and not randomly placed , as important contacts will also be deleted .

If they are randomly placed select important contacts that are not to be deleted in on my Mac section , just select use command and A keys , copy use command and C keys and paste use command and V keys .

The duplicate contacts can also be in various groups in iCloud.com Create a group of contacts on iCloud.com - Apple Support created and they will be shown in All contacts of Mac address book ( see the first option ) .


You need to find out duplicate contacts from address book from various groups , All contacts , All iCloud and another way is create a group name as say duplicate contacts 1 find out all duplicates and club in this folder and finally delete this folder it will be removed from address book / iCloud.com

Read If you see duplicate contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts - Apple Support


6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 3, 2021 11:07 PM in response to Jennyrae4

Duplicates contacts ( they will be under iCloud section > in All iCloud ) are shown in Mac address book as well as in iCloud.com if these duplicate contacts are selected from Mac address book use command and A keys and click on command and delete key they will be deleted condition they must be in series and not randomly placed , as important contacts will also be deleted .

If they are randomly placed select important contacts that are not to be deleted in on my Mac section , just select use command and A keys , copy use command and C keys and paste use command and V keys .

The duplicate contacts can also be in various groups in iCloud.com Create a group of contacts on iCloud.com - Apple Support created and they will be shown in All contacts of Mac address book ( see the first option ) .


You need to find out duplicate contacts from address book from various groups , All contacts , All iCloud and another way is create a group name as say duplicate contacts 1 find out all duplicates and club in this folder and finally delete this folder it will be removed from address book / iCloud.com

Read If you see duplicate contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts - Apple Support


Oct 21, 2021 8:08 PM in response to bseegmiller

See the thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250414800?

Resolve duplicates while importing contacts into Contacts on Mac - Apple Support

Note : deleting group will delete the contacts inside it , however the same contacts might be in different groups , you can club up same contacts from different groups in a single group can name it as duplicate contact group and delete it .

Not sure for Facebook .

Oct 13, 2021 10:34 AM in response to bseegmiller

There are say two groups a and b or might be more groups , various duplicate contacts are in them , for a single duplicate contact drag and drop them in any group or you can click on file on top menu bar > click on new group ( you can name it )

Then drag and drop the duplicate contacts in it from group a , group b and delete the group .

It's just random dragging and dropping .

Oct 21, 2021 7:56 PM in response to tygb

Excellent! Very clearly put and explained.


with regards to “groups” in the iCloud contact list, I’d read that deleting the group does not delete the contacts. Is that correct? It’s daunting to consider saying farewell to lots of contacts by an untoward action on a group.


recently, when starting up a new MacBook and installing/transferring my account, a pop-up alerted me that Facebook didn’t want my contacts and did I want to save them? Ouch! I said yes to saving them and then it told me that I had added some thousand of contacts to my address book, and all of a sudden my Contacts had all these duplicates I had to categorize and delete. The Contacts app on a device (usually accessed through the phone app) and the app on the Mac are different, and it seems linking contacts only exists on the phone. Going onto the Mac’s Contacts app and bravely asking it to remove duplicates really solved a huge headache for me.

Duplicate Contacts

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