Duplicate Contacts issue on Outlook.com

Anonymous
2016-03-01T18:24:14+00:00

I am struggling with this issue since I switched from Gmail to Outlook. I exported Gmail contacts to .csv file and imported into Outlook.com account. MS Outlook 2016 (on both PC and Mac) and also on iPhone have no contacts. I wanted to sync all three device with Outlook.com server and get contacts from there. However due to unknown reasons when sync happens, I see that there are up to 9 duplicate contacts on Outlook.com contact list. Sometimes they appear as linked and sometimes separate. 

Initially I though issue is related to Sync with iPhone and MS Outlook 2016. However then I deleted all contacts from Outlook.com account and all devices and also stopped all sort of sync with iPhone, PC and iMac. Now there is no contact on any of device. Then I uploaded .csv file exported from Gmail to outlook.com account. This .csv file have 179 rows with 179 contacts. Here is what happened: I see 50 contacts appeared twice on Outlook.com People account. Rest (179-50) contacts appeared once but there are two linked contacts on each card with once exception which has 3 links. When I click on "Links" on outlook.com account, first link shows "Outlook-(contacts)" and second link shows "Outlook-(My contacts). I checked .csv file and I see last column "Categories" is filled with "My contacts" all the way. 

Next, I clicked Manage-->Clean up contacts to merge those duplicates and to my surprise many contacts are appearing up to 9 times in match list. That means somewhere inside the outlook.com contacts are listed up to 9 times.

It seems problem may be related to Outlook.com as now none of device is syncing back to Outlook.com account.

Then I tried one more thing:

I deleted all contacts from Outlook.com account and added two contact manually to Outlook.com contact list. To my surprise in few minutes, one contact was duplicated automatically. I also observed that even though I have deleted all contacts from Outlook.com (I have 0 contacts now), when I press Manage--->Clean up contacts, it shows hundreds of contacts are still there and there are lots of duplicates suggesting to merge! This is probably the root cause of issue. In spite of deleting everything from Outlook.com contacts, Contacts are retained somewhere on Outlook.com and when I add new contact, they merge and create duplicates.

On Outlook.com People page, I clicked Manage--> Restore deleted contacts. And, it showed that "you have 4539 contacts that can be restored". These are mainly same contacts which are inside .csv file I am trying to import appearing multiple times in deletion log. Is it possible that these deleted contacts residing somewhere inside Outlook.com are syncing back and merging back when I add same contacts via .csv file or manually?

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Contacts

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-04-23T13:34:02+00:00

    I share your pain and see no fix in the short term. I too will clean out all contacts on my Mac Outlook 2016, on my Outlook 2013 and on Outlook.com. I purge everything from the "Deleted Files held for 30 days bin". I import fresh and verified contacts csv file with 241 contacts. All fine and I check everywhere and it is 241 with complete contacts info including categories. Wait a day plus and I now have 5275 contacts. I think I need to call Mulder and Scully for this problem because anything they come up with is going to be better and more entertaining than what we have already.

    I migrated to my GMAIL account and have my outlook mail forwarded there. I have also made the outlook.com mail address as default in GMAIL so my responses will have the Outlook.com address despite coming from GMAIL. This is a compromise I will need to live with as at least I don't have this weird contacts problem with GMAIL.

    The other thing that Outlook.com drove me batty was that despite the nice style and appearance, the display would always shake or tremble, not all the time, but enough to make it uncomfortable. It is not the laptops as it does it on my MacBook, Windows laptops, and Outlook for iOS. Almost as it was suffering from too much coffee! Also, my folders would disappear and reappear after a refresh.

    Again none of the problems mentioned above happen with my GMAIL account (I use the web access via Chrome). So I guess this is the way it will be for the time being.

    By the way, I don't think I had this problem prior to the migration to the new Outlook.com setup. I think the old style and even when in Preview mode, I was spared the joys of these issues.

    FCG

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-04-23T07:59:43+00:00

    Hi Johnson,

    We apologize for not being able to address your concern in a timely manner.

    I would require more information to help you better.

    1. From which email system are you accessing your account? Is it through the Microsoft Office Outlook or Mail Client or web browser?
    2. If you are accessing your account through a web browser then, from which web browser are you trying to access your account?
    3. If you are accessing your account through a web browser then,what do you see on the top left corner after logging into your account? Does it shows Outlook.com or Outlook Mail (Preview) or Outlook Mail or Outlook Email?

    To know which email system you are using, refer to the following Wiki article created by JMH3143. (MS - MVP) on **Email Systems... Differences explained**.

    If you are accessing your contacts through the Outlook.com web based interface, then refer to the section: Clean up duplicate contacts from this link and check if it helps.

    Hope the above information helps. Reply with necessary information and the result to help you further.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-18T01:10:59+00:00

    I'm getting hurt by this too, and it isn't just cosmetic. The duplicates seem to often drop the email address, and the result is that I literally can't resolve those people when I try to email them.

    I strongly suspect Microsoft is stalling on this one. I've never had a problem with Exchange, and I see that Microsoft is dumping the current Outlook.com for a proper Exchange solution, so no doubt they are hanging out for that to happen and hoping bugs like this are left behind.

    If so, I'd like to see Microsoft offer an early adopter option so those of us being impacted by this bug can choose to get migrated ahead of the rest of the regions scheduled.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-04-18T00:32:25+00:00

    No updates that I'm aware of - I check about once a week. The problem still seems to exist - it reoccured for my spouse just today.

    I use iCloud for the master version of all my contacts, and import into outlook.com via Mac Outlook 2016. So while this is a very annoying problem, it's no longer critical for me.

    The MS support people are unable or unwilling to help - not clear which it is. It's pretty obvious (to anyone with a software background) that MS engineering needs to be engaged to fix this, but the support people seem unable to figure this out and take action.

    Dave Ings

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-04-17T16:51:22+00:00

    I am curious if there has been any progress made on the due diligence and remediation of this problem. I have 241 contacts in my Outlook.com account. I use Mac Outlook 2016 as well. I have had the duplicate issues problem occur on a regular basis. The other day I gave my Microsoft account one last chance. I had 241 contacts in my outlook app and 241 in my Web display. This morning I had over 5000 contacts with numerous copies of each contact (well do the math if I only have 241 and there were over 5000...)

    I have done extensive research and see many have this issue and the response from Microsoft is the same regardless if from moderators or even the geeks at the Microsoft store. I do not have this problem with Google and their contacts DB. I hate to make my change permanent but this issue is ridiculous. The duplicates, the weird dates it enters on the contacts (1601), and the way it slices and dices the contact data over the many copies.

    4th down and long and I am about to punt.

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