How to Delete Duplicate Contacts on iPhone

This article explains why duplicate contacts happen and then offers three ways to delete them and keep your address book in sync across your devices.

How Do I Remove Duplicate Contacts from My Mac? 

The easiest way to remove duplicates from your list is to use the Contacts app on your Mac, which will automatically flag and merge contacts that look identical. And, if you sync your contacts between your iPhone and Mac, any changes you make on the Mac will update your iPhone, too. Here's what to do:

1. In the Mac Contacts app, click Card in the menu bar.

2. Click Look for Duplicates.

3. The Contacts app will scan all of your contacts. When it finds duplicates, click Merge to combine them and delete old unneeded ones.

   If you want to merge contacts with the same name but different other information, check the box before clicking Merge. This is tricky because you could have two different people with the same name in your address book and this will combine them into one.

4. If you sync your iPhone and Mac via iCloud, just wait a few minutes and the change will sync to your iPhone. If you don't use iCloud, you can sync the Mac and iPhone via USB to get the some update.

How Do I Remove Duplicate Contacts from My iPhone?

You can also manage duplicate entries from the Contacts app on your iPhone, but it doesn't have a convenient "Find Duplicates" feature like the Mac version does.

1. Find a duplicate entry you want to delete in the Contacts app, and tap it.

2. Tap Edit.

3. Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Contact.

4. In the pop-up, tap Delete Contact.

5. Repeat this for every duplicate contact you need to remove. If you sync your contacts with other devices via iCloud, every contact you delete on the iPhone will automatically be removed from your other devices.

iCloud Can Delete Contacts, Too

This third method works well for Windows users who have iPhones. Follow these steps to delete a contact via iCloud's interface. Just like using the Contacts app, changes you make here will transfer to your iPhone.

1. Log into iCloud.com and click Contacts.

2. Click the duplicate contact.

3. Click Edit.

4. Click Delete Contact and then the Delete confirmation as well.

Why Do I Have So Many Duplicate Contacts on My iPhone?

There are lots of reasons your pre-installed iPhone Contacts app is stuffed with multiple entries for the same people. Some of the most common reasons include:

• You entered information for the same person more than once.
• You took the iPhone's suggestion to add someone to your address book and they were already saved as a contact, but the iPhone added them separately.
• You may have combined multiple address books at some point and not fully combined duplicate entries for the same people.
• You may sync contact from multiple sources into your iPhone and have separate listings for the same person in each app.

Can I Delete Multiple Contacts on My iPhone?

Deleting duplicates directly on your iPhone is easy—but it's also pretty tedious. That's because you have to delete each contact individually. If you have dozens of duplicate contacts, you'll need to repeat these steps for every single contact.

Unfortunately, the pre-installed Contacts app doesn't offer a feature to scan your contacts, find the doubles, and give you an easy way to resolve them. There are a number of third-party apps you can get at the App Store for this.