It can be annoying having multiple contacts on your device. It can create confusion and havoc when you want to call someone. If you have an iPhone or iPad chances are that you’d have duplicate contacts on your device. This happens when your device is fetching contacts from multiple mediums such as Google or iCloud. If you are looking for a solution, there are multiple ways to get rid of the situation.
In this how-to guide, you will learn how to merge duplicate contacts, and how to remove duplicate contacts or delete duplicates entirely on iPhone.
Table of Contents:
- Solution 1 – Remove Duplicate Contacts on iPhone
- Solution 2 – Merge Duplicate Contacts On iPhone Using an App
- Solution 3 – Delete Contacts on iPhone
- Solution 4 – Delete Multiple Contacts on iPhone
- Solution 5 – Disable Contacts Associated with Email Accounts
Tips on How to Delete Duplicate Contacts on iPhone
1. Remove Duplicate Contacts on iPhone
iOS 16 is a new version of the iPhone operating system and was introduced In June 2022. Luckily, iOs 16 has an in-built functionality of removing duplicate contacts and is available on all iPhone devices capable of running iOS 16.
Do keep in that the feature is clunky and not so smooth, but in the end it gets the job done at least.
- Go to the Contacts icon on your iPhone or iPod.
- Click on “All Contacts”.
- If duplicates are found, then you will get a card at the top in which the number of duplicate contacts will be mentioned, click to these View Duplicates.
- Based on your choice you can either go for the selection on your choice or just tap on Merge All to merge all at once.
- If you like to choose an individual contact, you will see where your duplicates are coming from. Tap on Merge.
- Give your confirmation by tapping on the pop-up.
That’s all you have to do. If you do have not many contacts, it’s fine for you.
2. Merge Duplicate Contacts On iPhone Using an App
Above mentioned solution is good for a lot of iPhone users but sometimes it does not work when you have many contacts in your iPhone. If you are still stuck with duplicate contacts, this is the time to take help from a third-party app to get your work done. The app is called Easy Cleaner.
- First, download and install Easy Cleaner.
- Now open the app and agree on some permissions which would be asked by the app in order to access your contacts. Tap Continue and then OK.
- The option says Contacts Enrichment will appear. You can choose to accept or decline it. It won’t affect the functionality of the app.
- Now you’ll see the main interface of the app. Click on “Duplicate Contacts.”
- Choose the contact which you like to merge.
- You will get the information, you have to select either Merge or Merge All Duplicates.
3. Delete Contacts on iPhone
If you’re looking to delete duplicate content from iPhone instead of managing or merging them, then these are the steps you should follow:
- First select all contacts which you like to delete, then press and hold.
- Now just tap Delete Contact.
4. Delete Multiple Contacts on iPhone
There are some more steps that you’ll need to follow to delete multiple duplicate contacts on your device. Especially, as iOS is known to make simple things complicated for users. All you need to do you just follow these steps:
- First, open the Contacts app then select Contacts from the bottom portion.
- On your choice select the contacts which you want to delete.
- At this step, try to use your two fingers to select one contact and drag up or down to select more.
- Once you’ve selected all the contacts then long press on the gray selected contacts, and a menu will come up, allowing you to Copy, Share, Merge, or Delete the contacts. Tap Delete.
If this is not working on your iPhone Use the above-mentioned app called Easy Cleaner with the following steps:
- Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3 will be the same as mentioned in the above section of How to Use an App to Merge Duplicate Contacts on iPhone.
- Tap All Contacts.
- Tap and hold to select the contacts which you want to delete.
- Now with the highlighted contacts, tap the trash icon.
- Confirm by selecting Delete.
This is one of the best ways to delete multiple contacts on your iPhone.
5. Disable Contacts Associated with Email Accounts
Last but not least, a way to clean up your contacts list is by disabling lists attached to your email accounts.
You can go through: Settings > Contacts > Accounts. Then, click on the account and toggle Contacts off.
Once you are done with this, all contacts related to that account will be deleted from your iPhone. However, they will stay on the server such as Google Contacts.