Eliminating Mac Address Book Duplicate Entries

By Wesley Fryer On October 28, 2009 · · Add Comment

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I am delighted that iTunes supports synchronizing my address book on my iPhone with my GMail contacts, but I’ve been dismayed by the number of duplicate entries which resulted when I enabled this sync option. This experience has brought back flashbacks from November 2007 when I encountered massive contact duplication issues working with Plaxo. Fortunately, as a Mac user, I discovered an easy and free fix to my latest iPhone address book / GMail contacts duplication problem today.

Thanks to a post in the Google Mobile Help forum, I learned the Apple Address book application has a built-in feature to search for and merge duplicate address book entries. After launching the default Address Book application which comes with every Mac, from the CARD menu choose LOOK FOR DUPLICATES.

After a quick search (depending on how many contacts you have and the speed of your computer, of course) the Address Book application should ask you for confirmation if you want to merge identified duplicates. I also checked the box to merge address book cards / entries which have the same name but different information.

I ran this SEARCH FOR DUPLICATES procedure several times, and for some reason it took three tries before all of the duplicates were identified and merged. It didn’t find them all on the first attempt. This was fast and painless, however, and overall I’m delighted this merging process was so easy.

Hot dog, this is fantastic! Goodbye, duplicate address book entries!

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apple, book, google, iphone, remove, address, gmail, plaxo

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