Nowadays, we handle many phone numbers that are stored in our address book and stay there. It can happen that when you change phones or sync your address book, contacts are copied to both the SIM card and the cloud. This, although minimal, can take up storage space that could be saved. Therefore, we’ll explain how to delete duplicate contacts on your iPhone .
Don’t worry about the contents of your address book, as it’s a process that automatically deletes duplicate contacts, keeping the rest of your numbers. Therefore, you won’t be deleting your entire address book; rather, it will be a very specific selection of the contacts that have been copied.
Why numbers are duplicated in the mobile phone address book
There are several reasons why a number may appear two or more times in your address book. Typically, this happens because the contact is synced in two or three places at once , such as on multiple cloud services (Google, iCloud, etc.) or on both the SIM card and the cloud at the same time. They can also be stored in the same phone memory, although this is less likely.
Ideally, you should merge all your contacts into one place , especially on iOS, because you can transfer contacts from Gmail , iCloud, or locally. To avoid such situations in the future, disable all other storage locations .
How to Delete Duplicate Contacts on iPhone
The truth is, there are several methods to fix this mess and clear your address book of unwanted numbers. As a first step, you can try the one offered by iOS through the Contacts app , which allows you to link the same person’s card to multiple addresses. It’s a somewhat hidden option that can go unnoticed, but it’s used if the system alone isn’t able to detect duplicate contacts.
To remove this duplication, simply follow these steps on your iPhone from the Contacts app:
- Go to the All list in the app.
- Tap one of the contacts and tap Edit .
- Next, select Link and choose the contact you want.
This doesn’t mean the numbers are merged , so any changes you make to one will apply to the rest. In this case, it’s two or more cards belonging to the same person, but you can also do this with numbers belonging to different contacts. To do this, tap one of the linked cards and select Use this name for the merged card.
Use a third-party app to remove duplicate contacts
The problem is that duplicate contacts take up a lot of space in your address book. Things change, because then the iOS method will be very difficult for you . The best thing to do is use a third-party app to delete all those unnecessary cards at once.
One of the best options is Cleaner Pro , a completely free app for iOS that analyzes your entire address book and classifies duplicate contacts. It also displays other unused contacts, such as email addresses without numbers or contacts without names. Just grant it the necessary permissions in the Privacy section , and the app will begin cleaning up your address book.
