How to delete multiple contacts in outlook

Supposing you have a number of duplicate contacts in your Outlook Contacts folder, and now you want to clean up the redundant contacts to release the room, it is a boring job if you delete them one by one, and here I can talk about some useful ways for you to solve this problem.

Table of Contents Show

Quickly remove all duplicate contacts from multiple Contact folders in Outlook
Reasons Why Duplicate Contacts are Created in Outlook?
User Query- How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Contacts in Microsoft Outlook
Manual Ways to Remove Duplicate Outlook Contacts
#Method 1. Delete Duplicate Contacts One at a Time
#Method 2. Delete Multiple Duplicate Contacts Using Export & Import
Instant Solution to Merge and Delete Duplicate Contacts in Microsoft Outlook
How do I bulk delete contacts in Outlook?
How do you select multiple contacts in Outlook?
How do I delete multiple contacts in a list?
How do I eliminate duplicate contacts?

Delete duplicate contacts with Sort function

Delete duplicate contacts with Kutools for Outlook

Quickly remove all duplicate contacts from multiple Contact folders in Outlook

With Kutools for Outlook's (Delete) Duplicate Contacts utility, you can compare the specified contact fields to delete all duplicate contacts from multiple selected contact folders easily in Outlook. Click for 60-day free trial without limitation!

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Delete duplicate contacts with Sort function

With this Sort function, you can sort the full name or email address, then select all the duplicate contacts you want to remove.

1. Go to the Contacts item and select the contacts folder that contains duplicate contacts.

2. Click View > Change View > Phone to list the contacts, so that you can easily scan the contacts and see the duplicates.

3. Then click Full Name column to sort the contacts information by name, and the duplicate contacts are put together. See screenshot:

4. And then hold Ctrl key and select each duplicate contact, after highlighting the contacts you want to remove, right click, and choose Delete from the context menu (or you can press the Delete key from the keyboard to delete the selected contacts). See screenshot:

5. Then all the selected duplicate contacts are deleted.

Delete duplicate contacts with Kutools for Outlook

For the first method, you need to select the duplicate contacts one by one, and it's probable to miss some duplicates if you are not paying more attention to look for the duplicate one. But if you have Kutools for Outlook, with its Delete Duplicate Contacts function, you can remove the duplicates with ease.

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Microsoft Outlook is the first choice of users because of there various features like emailing, calendaring, contact management, and so on. At times, users face the problem of duplicate contacts in Outlook and want to remove them for more space. Therefore, in this blog, we will explain some simple methods to merge and delete duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Continue reading for the appropriate solution.

Reasons Why Duplicate Contacts are Created in Outlook?

If a user uses different email accounts with the same name, a new contact is created for the same person.
When you synchronize the Outlook contacts s with your laptop, mobile devices, or some social platforms it causes the creation of duplicate contacts.
When the e-mail messages are dragged to the Contacts folder, a new contact is automatically created in Outlook.

Also Read: How to Merge Multiple Archive PST Files

User Query- How to Merge and Delete Duplicate Contacts in Microsoft Outlook

“I have over 3000 contacts in my Outlook and would like to delete duplicate contacts. Basically, I want to merge multiple contact folders in Outlook without duplicates. I have tried a manual solution to do so but fails. My Outlook is hanged while performing this task. So I don’t try it again. Now I need an easy and quick way to merge and remove duplicate contacts in Outlook 2016.”

Instant Solution– To combine and remove duplicate Outlook contacts, try PST Merge software. It will allow merging Outlook contacts and delete duplicates without damaging any data.

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Manual Ways to Remove Duplicate Outlook Contacts

Here we are going to describe step by step manual process to remove duplicate contacts in Outlook 2016, 2013, 2010 one by one.

#Method 1. Delete Duplicate Contacts One at a Time

Open Outlook and click People

In the Current View group, click the right corner of the views box and then click on Phone

Note: You can easily use this method to scan contacts to find the duplicates.

In the contacts list, hold Ctrl key and select the duplicate contacts want to delete then press Delete

#Method 2. Delete Multiple Duplicate Contacts Using Export & Import

To delete duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook one by one is lengthy and time-consuming. Therefore, the fastest and easiest way is to export them to a file, then import them into a new folder.

Launch Outlook and click People
Right-click Contacts under My Contacts and select New Folder

Give the name of your new folder like “Remove Duplicates”

Click back to the main Contact folder
Press Ctrl+A to select all contacts
Drag and drop the contacts into the Remove Duplicates folder. When you drag and drop contacts to a new folder, the main Contacts folder becomes empty

Now, click File >> Open & Export >> Import/Export

Choose the option of Export to a file and hit the Next button

Choose Comma Separated Values and again click Next

Select the Remove Duplicates folder and press Next

Click browse and select the desired location to save CSV file and hit the Finish button.

Import Contacts Back Into Microsoft Outlook

Select File >> Open & Export >> Import/Export
Choose Import from another program or file and then select Comma Separated Values
Press the Browse button and select the exported file. Under the Options, choose “Do not import duplicates” and click Next
Choose your main contacts folder as destination folder and hit the Finish button.

Get Back Contacts From The New Folder Created to Main Contacts Folder

If you ever get a duplicate again, you will see a pop-up with two options:

Select “Add new contact” if the contact is not a duplicate
Select “Update information of selected contact” if the contact is a duplicate
After selecting the required option, click on Update. And click on Update All option if you want to repeat the same selection for all duplicate contacts.

Note- When the procedure is finished, you can delete the Remove Duplicates folder.

This is the complete process to remove duplicate Outlook contacts manually. This method is very lengthy and confusing. If you are not satisfied with the manual approach you easily choose the expert solution to simplify the task.

Instant Solution to Merge and Delete Duplicate Contacts in Microsoft Outlook

In order to simply and accurately combine or remove duplicate contacts in Outlook, you can use the Outlook PST Merge tool. This software is capable to remove duplicate Outlook contacts while combining. It helps to merge multiple Outlook contacts folders without data loss issue. With the help of this application, you can combine unlimited contacts from Outlook without duplicates. It is compatible with all Outlook Versions such as 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, etc. and also works on Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, etc.

Follow these steps to merge and delete duplicate Outlook contacts;

Step 1. Select the PST files which having contacts.

Step 2. Select the Merge option and click Next.

Step 3. Choose Merge in existing PST, Outlook Profile or new PST file .

Step 4. Select the contacts fields to remove duplicates like Full Name, Email Address, Mobile Number, Job Title, etc.

Step 5. Then click on the Next button.

Conclusion

In the above blog, we explained step by step how to delete duplicate contacts in Microsoft Outlook. Here, we discussed the manual and the expert solution to combine and remove duplicate contacts from Microsoft Outlook. You can choose any method according to your needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I merge or remove duplicate Outlook contacts?

You can try the Merge PST Files software which allows the user to delete duplicate Outlook contacts while merging.

Is it possible to combine Outlook contacts from different accounts?

Yes, the mentioned software will let you combine Outlook contacts from different accounts into a single one.

Can I merge contacts in Outlook without duplicates manually?

Yes, you can export the contacts to CSV file and then import CSV into Outlook application. While importing the CSV file, you need to check the “Do not import duplicates” box to remove the duplicates.

By Ugra Narayan Pandey

Ugra Narayan Pandey has experience of more than 10 years in the Technical arena and he has expertise in Cloud Security, Cloud Migration, Data Security, Data Recovery, Email Backup, and many more.

How do I bulk delete contacts in Outlook?

Delete contacts or restore contacts in Outlook.com.

In Outlook.com, select. at the bottom of the page..

In the left pane, select All contacts..

Select one or more contacts in the middle pane, and then select Delete..

Select Delete to confirm..

How do you select multiple contacts in Outlook?

Instructions on How to Select Contacts in Outlook To select multiple contacts if the contacts are not next to each other in the folder, click the first one to select. Then hold down the “Ctrl” key on your keyboard. Then click any other contacts to select. Finally, release the “Ctrl” key when finished.

How do I delete multiple contacts in a list?

Step 1: Open the Contacts app. Go to the top three-dot icon and click on it. Step 2: Choose the "Select all" option. Step 3: Press the Delete icon and choose the Delete button.

How do I eliminate duplicate contacts?

On your Android phone or tablet, open the Contacts app . At the top right, select the Google Account that has the duplicate contacts you want to merge. At the bottom, tap Fix & manage Merge & fix. Tap Merge duplicates.