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
    2017-03-25T09:52:26+00:00

    Me too, the same contacts can be duplicated 12 times, i deleted all devises off my account , deleted all contacts, left overnight - imported 283 contacts, everything fine for 1 day, then i have 592 contacts !!!!!!!!! - i dont care about "linked" or Facebook contacts - those apps have seperate contacts anyway - i just want a basic address book like it used to be - i pay £79.99 for office but use Gmail as its so much simpler and never have a problem syncing between devises , as soon as my kids leave school i will be cancelling my subscription

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-21T01:57:45+00:00

    Hopeful. Thanks for sharing. Please let me know if this works. Mine is still stable using the method in the post above, fyi.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-03-20T20:13:10+00:00

    Its been driving me crazy this weekend - spent ages importing, deleting and importing different CSV files - I went into People and deleted everything - left it overnight - in the options on Outlook.com i happened to notice under "general" then "mobile devises" a load of devises i dont own anymore - since deleting these and every other  devise  its been fine for 48 hours !!!!! hope this helps

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-12-29T19:10:44+00:00

    Greetings, all - I tried a new tactic that seems to be working to update individual contacts without duplication.

    Here's the workaround that came out of updating my Christmas card list.

    On the desktop version of Outlook for my second Outlook Profile (see above, it's the profile that doesn't use an Outlook.com email address), I forward a selected individual contact to myself at my Outlook.com email (in my everyday primary Outlook Profile, the one I'm rebuilding) as a .vcf file, not as an Outlook contact. Close Outlook (second profile).

    Next, I open my primary Outlook Profile and find the email with the .vcf contact file. Click on the .vcf and Outlook will give you the option to save it or update as you wish.

    While this is cumbersome to switch back and forth across profiles, it seems to be working without duplication.

    I realize this is so cumbersome to do each contact individually that it would be a non-starter for anyone with thousands of professional contacts. It seems to help with moving existing contacts if I don't want to retype or copy all the fields.

    Technically, the .vcf format may strip off some markers that Outlook uses in that insane linking that it does without being asked.

    I haven't synced it with my iPhone contacts yet. If/when I try that, I'll share my results.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-12-20T20:54:09+00:00

    In my multiple schemes, I found that if I left even one contact remaining, the deleted contacts would return and duplicate, in some fashion. I uninstalled and reinstalled Outlook desktop several times and could not eliminate the problem.

    I now run the most recent clean install of Outlook on the desktop with all newly created contacts. I created these contacts by saving incoming email addresses or just typing in the information. It's not too bad, since I use it for email and calendar. I don't do Skype or video chat, so I can live without the phone numbers in this profile. I realize that others may use the video features, and this may not work for them.

    To keep the old contacts somewhat handy and as a check, I created a second Outlook Profile on the desktop that is limited to a single, non-Outlook.com email address created for this purpose. Several months ago, I imported the old contacts list from its Excel spreadsheet into this profile. There has been no duplication or corrupted data in the second profile. It's cumbersome to switch profiles.

    So far, so good, but Outlook is not performing as it is supposed to.

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