Linking phone to PC creates duplicate contacts

You might all want to have a look at this link which refers to the identical problem but with Teams as against Link to Windows: Fixes or workarounds for recent issues on Outlook.com - Microsoft Support

Run the EXE file and it deletes the spurious contacts folder created by Link to Windows/Teams with reference to your phone. Choose that folder. Let the app take its time to run. Be patient. It eliminated thousands of duplicate contacts in my case.

What remains unclear is whether you also need to sync the Samsung accounts contacts folder. My understanding is that the Outlook sync is one way.

Someone might address that please.

I fear that this is all far more complcated and confused that just "Link to Windows" or whatever Micorosft has now called it in one of their usual bids to confuse everybody.

As with others writing here, I have:

1. thousands of duplicate contacts that something has created
2. within those contacts, lines and lines of duplicated data such as numbers and notes
3. The Outlook Android App which, when contact sync with @msn.com is turned on, slows to a crawl . To the extent that it is virtually unusable. A restart/re-sync does not solve the problem
4. A folder in Desktop Outlook which references my Samsung s23U but shows no contact data in it
5. A folder in Outlook.com web which also references my Samsung s23U but has loads of duplicated contacts in it
6. Contacts in the Outlook Android app which cannot be searched - there is no search function
7. Contacts in the Outlook Android app which cannot be edited in the OL app - you are referred to the Samsung Contacts app
8. Despite the mutiplicity of contacts the merge function in the Samsung Contacts app does not find them
9. Confusion as to whether sync of my @msn.com account, which is personal, should be through Exchange or Hotmail/Outlook. Or both
10. Confusion as to whether the Samsung account should also be synced or whether that would create yet another issue
11. Outrageously, no tool within Outlook desktop or web that will clean up duplicate contacts. I now have nearly 20k of them created by this mess.

Nothing written below is a clean, easy and clear solution. That should come from Miscrosoft. Perhaps working with Samsung as the programs are linked. Phone Link is a great app but if it is messing up contacts then it is undermining itself.

It looks like the latest version of the Link to Windows tool no longer has the sync contacts option.

MS have acknowledged the duplicate contact issue and posted this in the 365 Service Status:

Title: Users' contact lists are being unexpectedly duplicated

User impact: Users' contact lists are being unexpectedly duplicated.

More info: This issue will only impact users who sync their personal account device contacts with Microsoft Teams.

To remove the duplicate contacts created by this issue prior to the completion of our long-term clean-up process, affected users can use the workaround described here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook\_com/forum/all/workaround-for-outlookcom-users-experiencing/d58d75c2-76a9-4176-b907-333ddfa44952

We'd like to get your feedback on the workaround we provided. From a non-mobile device, please rate this post and submit it in the textbox.

Current status: We're continuing our efforts on a long term solution to clean up the remaining duplicate contacts which will be available closer to the end of June. In the interim, affected users can follow the steps provided in the linked article to manually remove the duplicate contacts.

Next update by: Friday, May 26, 2023, at 6:00 AM UTC

Paul, really appreciate the work you have done on this. Did you get some kind of ticket number from the Microsoft support staff that I could give them when I contact them.

Cheers..............Neil

We need a resolution from Microsoft - everyone using Link to windows WILL have this issue regardless of Apple or Android