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Duplicate contacts won’t merge in new iOS 16.3 update

Hi! I’m following all of the directions I found in a simple search and my Contacts app is not showing any automatic duplicate detection. I installed iOS 16.3 and apparently, there’s supposed to be a gray box with the words Duplicates Detected and asks if I want to merge those contacts. But this doesn’t happen with my Contacts app. I offloaded and reinstalled the app, btw, and still nothing. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

iPhone 11

Posted on Jan 31, 2023 7:25 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 31, 2023 10:08 PM

You may have stored the same contacts in multiple email accounts.

Either remove the contacts from the rarely used email account or disable contacts from the rarely used mail account in the iOS Mail app.


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


Contacts between two email accounts can not be merged through an iPhone



2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 31, 2023 10:08 PM in response to maureenmalloy

You may have stored the same contacts in multiple email accounts.

Either remove the contacts from the rarely used email account or disable contacts from the rarely used mail account in the iOS Mail app.


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


Contacts between two email accounts can not be merged through an iPhone



Duplicate contacts won’t merge in new iOS 16.3 update

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