How do I eliminate duplicate Contacts?

My BlackBerry Contacts List seems to have accumulated multiple duplicates of all my entries. My thought is that they were caused by errors in the synchronization and backup process through BlackBerry Link for OS10. This started on my previous phone with the sync software for BlackBerry 7. Duplicates came over and have gotten worse since then.

How can I easily fix this without going through the whole list and deleting manually? There's an element of similarity in my Microsoft Outlook list, as that's where it was syncing to.

check and make sure you only have one syncing,

You'll be further ahead in the long run if you just forget about Link and use Outlook.com to automatically backup and sync between Office Outlook and your phone. You'll still have to manually clean up your contacts though. Just delete the duplicates that don't match Outlook.com exactly.

That way you'll have no problem moving your contacts and calendar over to a new phone when you leave BB10.

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

You'll be further ahead in the long run if you just forget about Link and use Outlook.com to automatically backup and sync between Office Outlook and your phone. You'll still have to manually clean up your contacts though. Just delete the duplicates that don't match Outlook.com exactly.

That way you'll have no problem moving your contacts and calendar over to a new phone when you leave BB10.

Agree 100%. This is what I did before I switched to priv. I got all my local contacts transferred/synced with my msn account. Then I went into outlook.com and deleted all the duplicates. When I loaded my msn account on the priv and synced contacts everything was perfect.

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

You'll be further ahead in the long run if you just forget about Link and use Outlook.com to automatically backup and sync between Office Outlook and your phone. You'll still have to manually clean up your contacts though. Just delete the duplicates that don't match Outlook.com exactly.

That way you'll have no problem moving your contacts and calendar over to a new phone when you leave BB10.

This ^^^^ Make sure all your contacts are in Outlook.com and nuke the rest. It'll backup and sync seamlessly.

Hey Guys,

Above was my question but I couldn't see a way to respond to your helpful posts without registering as a member of the forum. Now I'll reply and quote as needed.

Originally Posted by CB-BB-BBM

check and make sure you only have one syncing,

Definitely only have one phone, and no one else ever connected their BB to my copy of BlackBerry Link.

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

You'll be further ahead in the long run if you just forget about Link and use Outlook.com to automatically backup and sync between Office Outlook and your phone. You'll still have to manually clean up your contacts though. Just delete the duplicates that don't match Outlook.com exactly.

That way you'll have no problem moving your contacts and calendar over to a new phone when you leave BB10.

Hello BB-JAM215,

Thanks for your recommendations. I note your reference to using outlook.com to backup and sync my contacts. My Personal Contacts are in gmail.com, while my Business Contacts are in Office Outlook running an account off of our own company domain. . How do I adapt your suggestion to work with my actual situation?

Originally Posted by Anthony B1

Definitely only have one phone, and no one else ever connected their BB to my copy of BlackBerry Link.

One email acct syncing , in settings of contacts you can turn other ones off.

Originally Posted by Anthony B1

Hello BB-JAM215,

Thanks for your recommendations. I note your reference to using outlook.com to backup and sync my contacts. My Personal Contacts are in gmail.com, while my Business Contacts are in Office Outlook running an account off of our own company domain. . How do I adapt your suggestion to work with my actual situation?

It sounds like your business Office account is probably on a Exchange server. If so, this should help: https://www.lifewire.com/outlook-exc...ttings-1170669
There is also similar information on Microsoft.com for this and other Office setups.

You can sync both your GMail and Exchange contacts separately through your HUB accounts to your phone contacts app.

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

It sounds like your business Office account is probably on a Exchange server. If so, this should help: https://www.lifewire.com/outlook-exc...ttings-1170669
There is also similar information on Microsoft.com for this and other Office setups.

You can sync both your GMail and Exchange contacts separately through your HUB accounts to your phone contacts app.

No, we do not use Microsoft Exchange at work. It is just a regular Microsoft Office Outlook configuration. I actually confirmed this with the IT guy a while back, and he does NOT like or use Exchange. We have email on our own domain like [email protected] and each user is simply configured in Outlook via POP3 or IMAP based on personal choice. Mine is IMAP. This of course relates to mail, and does nothing for Contacts or calendar as far as I know.

Looking in my BlackBerry Settings now, on the Accounts page, I see the Business account just says Email under it, while the Gmail account says Calendar, Email, Contacts. There seems to be a fairly clear synchronization between the phone and Gmail, but it's uncertain what's really happening with the Business account. (By the way, I had a better understanding of what the BlackBerry Software was doing for me in OS7 than what Link is doing in OS10).

BlackBerry Link also syncs my photos from the phone to the computer, so that's another change I'd have to investigate, but perhaps we should stay focused on the Contacts mess in this thread.

I'm now on BlackBerry Android, so I can't look at my old BB10 settings, but I'm wondering how your businesses contacts are getting sync'd if only email is showing in the account settings. Have you looked under Settings in your Contacts app?

You could sync your photos automatically through DropBox or just do it manually over USB when you are connected to your PC.

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

I'm now on BlackBerry Android, so I can't look at my old BB10 settings, but I'm wondering how your businesses contacts are getting sync'd if only email is showing in the account settings. Have you looked under Settings in your Contacts app?

You could sync your photos automatically through DropBox or just do it manually over USB when you are connected to your PC.

My device Account Settings lists BBM, LinkedIn, and Gmail contacts, as well as SIM Card Contacts. Yet, all the business Contacts from Office Outlook appear to be on my phone. I thought that was the function of BlackBerry Link, whereas the Gmail items appear to be syncing online. New or changed information in the Business Contacts only synced when I connected to BB Link. Gmail Contact changes appear to sync automatically within a few minutes of any change made. So where do we go from here?

Are you using Link on your work computer or at home? And which version of Office Outlook is on your PC?

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

Are you using Link on your work computer or at home? And which version of Office Outlook is on your PC?

On the work computer, which is a laptop which I usually bring home. Outlook is in Office 2010. BlackBerry is a Z30.

Originally Posted by Anthony B1

On the work computer, which is a laptop which I usually bring home. Outlook is in Office 2010. BlackBerry is a Z30.

What you need to do is add your Oulook.com account (create a new account if your don't have one) to your Office Outlook 2010 and use that account for your PC Contacts.

Probably the simplest way to get there is to sync your Z30 Contacts to your to Outlook.com account. You mentioned your SIM Contacts. I suggest you copy the contacts you want to use to your SIM card and then copy those contacts back to your new Outlook.com account Contacts on your Z30. Make sure the Outlook.com account on your Z30 is the default account for new contacts.

Then once you get Outloook 2010 sync'd to Outlook.com everything should automatically sync both ways between your PC and your Z30 through Outlook.com.

See: https://support.office.com/en-us/art...AAA=2010,_2007

Originally Posted by BB-JAM215

What you need to do is add your Oulook.com account (create a new account if your don't have one) to your Office Outlook 2010 and use that account for your PC Contacts.

Probably the simplest way to get there is to sync your Z30 Contacts to your to Outlook.com account. You mentioned your SIM Contacts. I suggest you copy the contacts you want to use to your SIM card and then copy those contacts back to your new Outlook.com account Contacts on your Z30. Make sure the Outlook.com account on your Z30 is the default account for new contacts.

Then once you get Outloook 2010 sync'd to Outlook.com everything should automatically sync both ways between your PC and your Z30 through Outlook.com.

See: https://support.office.com/en-us/art...AAA=2010,_2007

Exactly this ^^^^ It was what I was alluding to doing in my original post above. Good luck OP.

I've added an outlook.com account to both my BlackBerry Z30 and my Microsoft Outlook 2010 as suggested above. Now I can't figure how to initiate the synchronization. Please advise next steps.

Hello,

In the absence of any new replies, I've attempted to work through this, but there are a few negative side effects. The outlook.com account added itself to Microsoft Outlook in the dreaded Exchange format. As such it has taken over my whole Outlook operation, which means that in an effort to fix a Contacts problem, I've now lost control of the Calendar for my work email account. When I receive a Calendar Invite via my work email address, my reply attempts to go via this new outlook.com account and fails. Then the Calendar event shows in this new Calendar instead of with my other stuff in the original Calendar. How can I restrict the outlook.com account to Contacts activity only??