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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

48 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2017-03-27T21:29:43+00:00

    Hi - I just posted a new discussion about this - below is a workaround I found -

    Apparently, a considerable number of Hotmail/Outlook accounts were corrupted during the migration, and Microsoft is unwilling to admit the problem, let alone attempt to resolve it. If you like using the Outlook client for mail and want to keep your Outlook/Live/Hotmail address, and sync contacts between devices, here's what I did:

    1. Create a new outlook.com account (new email address.) This new account will be used only to sync your contacts (and calendars if you wish.) This account will be created on the new MS exchange servers, and they do not seem to have issues with duplication/etc.

    2)  Add the new account to your Outlook client (Outlook 2010/2013/2016) on your PC.  Don't delete your existing account, and don't set the new account as the default mail account.

    1. Import your clean (non-duplicated) csv contact file into the new account "Contacts" folder on the Outlook client. If you don't have a clean csv copy it is much easier to clean up your contacts using Excel to sort/edit the csv file, just remember to save it as csv (ignore warning.)
    2. In the Outlook client, delete all contacts from your old Outlook account to make things simpler and make the next step less confusing.
    3. In the Outlook client, you will need to adjust your address book (address book --> tools --> options) so that the new account contacts show and search first. Two "contacts" lists will show in the options, you will want to find the one with your new account contacts. Probably the second contacts set. Test by addressing a new email and clicking "To:" If the contacts list is empty, try the other contacts list in address book --> tools --> options.
    4. Add the new account to your phone. On iPhones, you will want to un-sync your old Outlook account contacts (and remove them from phone.) Then adjust the settings on the new Outlook account on your phone so that contacts (and calendars, if desired) sync. No need to sync mail on this new account. Android phones I think have similar settings.
    5. If you do decide to also sync calendars on the new account (for consistency,) make a .pst backup of your old calendar on the Outlook client, then reimport the calendar events (.pst file just created) into the new account calendar. Also, on the Outlook client, uncheck the old calendar so only the new calendar shows. Change your phone settings so the old account calendar no longer shows/syncs (remove calendar events from phone) and check that the new account does sync and show its calendar on the phone.

    It's sort of a pain, but can all be completed in an hour or two. Basically you end up using your existing account for mail, and the new account for contacts/calendars, but it's pretty seamless from the client side once set up. After many months and countless hours of trying everything else, this worked well for me. Good luck!

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-01T18:50:37+00:00

    You are not alone. I too use outlook.com sync'd with Mac Office 2016 Outlook and I've been fighting the duplicate contacts issue for a while. I have about 400 contacts but randomly outlook.com will decide that I really have 800 or 1000, having duplicated all or most of them.

    About a month ago I deleted all my contacts and didn't try to restore them for about a week. This actually seemed to work - no more dup issues - until literally this morning when all of a sudden I had 600 contacts i.e. 200 duplicates that came out of thin air.

    It's obvious (to me) outlook.com has some kind of syncing or data integrity issues with contacts, but I've never been able to find the "smoking gun" clue as to what scenario triggers it.

    Dave Ings

    Toronto, Canada

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-16T02:54:24+00:00

    I have tried chat support and they couldn't fix it. I also left feedback to Microsoft regarding this issue. Since I neither get any resolution nor any status update on this forum from Microsoft, I finally gave up and made switch to Gmail.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2016-03-07T21:14:40+00:00

    Last week, I deleted all contacts from outlook.com as I was tired to see those duplicates. I was happy with no contacts for last few days. But today suddenly I see hundreds of contacts uploaded automatically and everything is duplicated 10 times in my People contact list on outlook.com came from nowhere???? I do not even now have control over my contact list!

    Great job Microsoft Outlook.com team!!!! Keep bugging and infuriating us till we completely delete the account !!

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2016-03-01T19:18:01+00:00

    Thanks Dave. Few years back I slowly started switch to Apple products because of numerous issues on Microsoft OS. Microsoft office was the only product which I was not able to leave out of long time habit. In last couple of years, I though Microsoft have again regained it's position with Windows 10 and new product line up like Surface Pro. I thought Outlook.com will be a good companion to MS Outlook due to Activesync and hence decided to give try. But it seems Microsoft has lot of work to do and that's at least true for Outlook.com. This contact issue is terrible and I definitely don't want to see every contact listed 10 times on my phone and outlook. I do not think Microsoft can regain our confidence unless they fix this kind of basic issues.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments