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Can we merge separate Address book entries?

I synced my Address Book with my mobile (Nokia E75). What’s happened as a result is that my phonebook has duplicate entires for some names. So, John Smith, say, has a separate for his mobile number (which i’d stored independently previously) and one for his email (which Address book has fed it).
So, my question is whether I can merge 2 entries under one name if the name is the same in address Book? Then I can just resync the phone and Address Book and all’s good.
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Jennifer Willough

Comments: 6 Responses to “Can we merge separate Address book entries?”

    13 years ago

    I don't know of any way to do this except going through the addresses manually on your Mac and fixing it one-by-one. Do they contain the same info? It gets difficult if one contact contains an email and the other a phone number.
    I know if you search for "mac address book cleaner" you get a lot of hits, but I've never tried them.
    How did you sync with your Nokia? What software did you use to do that? My fear is that the same sync method will just duplicate the contacts again the next time after you clean up. Is there any option in that syncing method to fix the issue?

      Jennifer Willough
      13 years ago

      I used Isync. It seems ridiculously limited as a software. Can't seem to figure out how to back up videos and pics through it.

      If they have the same info then I guess I could just delete one of them? Like with Itunes duplicates. But what about the ones which have a phone number in one and email id in another. Is there a way through Automator?

        13 years ago

        How many contacts do you have like that? If you have a lot, and they are all exactly the same (one with email, one with phone) then it may be worth it. But usually there is just enough variation in what is stored where that it would be worth it to do it manually to get it right and avoid mistakes. Depends on how many you have.

          Jennifer Willough
          13 years ago

          i'd have about 50 and upwards such contacts. They're exactly one email and one number. Some have multiple numbers but I can do them manually.

            13 years ago

            I would think with 50, that the best solution would be to do it manually. But do one or two and sync again to make sure that your syncing process just doesn't repeat the problem.

    Chris Smith
    13 years ago

    I've been on the same boat in the past.,.all my gmail contacts were duplicated when I have it synced and deleting all those duplicated contacts is really tiresome. There is no possible way but to have those duplicated contacts deleted manually.,.,but it is really a headache,right? but i guess you could try using a duplicate remover like Scrubly Duplicate Contacts Remover. The process is simple; it scans your Gmail contact folders and look for duplicate contacts. If Scrubly finds any exact or Compatible Contacts, it will remove or merge them automatically. They even have a back up so I can have the original copy just in case. Here is the link if you are interested: http://scrubbly.com
    You could also refer to http://www.scrubly.com/blog/index.php/2011/01/06/how-to-sync-outlook-2011-for-mac-with-mac-address-book/ for other issues...Hope this helps.,.take care and have a nice day.

    Chris

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